Lagging Behind
by mtfreak89
Summary: Alicia Clark/Elyza Lex. Rated M for violence and Language. When the world is falling apart in every direction, it's nice to know that you have someone. This is the story of how many someones become each other's someones with a lot of cussing and strange situations in between. Welcome to the Apocalypse.
1. Chapter 1 or Everything is Fine

Just a fun little story co-written with Bookwyrm743 (Cross-posted on A03 under their tag). This is a SLOWBURN Clexa (will literally take forever).

Chapter 1 Everything is fine

"Hey girl long time no see!" Raven grabbed Elyza and pulled her into a tight hug, "Oh my god I missed you so much!"

"You act like you've been gone for years." Elyza teased, but she hugged back just as tightly. The familiar smell of oil and solder reminded her of hours spent helping Raven with robotics labs, and shop assignments. Raven smelled like home. "Man, you couldn't have picked a college a little closer to home?"

Raven stepped back to grab Elyza's suitcase, "You know I love it here. Besides an hour isn't that far away, just a hop skip and a boat ride right?"

Elyza slugged her shoulder, following her into the tiny apartment. "Weirdo."

"You know it." Raven grinned over her shoulder, "You get the couch." She set the suitcase in the corner by the TV and snagged the clean laundry off the back of her green couch. "I've got a few blankets in the ottoman." Raven jerked her chin at the pair of black footrests next to Elyza.

She lifted the lid off the top and found a plethora of old controllers and consoles tangled into a mess that would have made any nerd cry. "This is just sad." Elyza looked up to Raven and opened up the other footrest to pull out the heavy denim blankets. "These, however, are amazing."

"Courtesy of grandma Reyes." Raven grinned, "She's a god damn miracle worker with some old jeans and flannel." Her smile faded just a touch and she watched Elyza focus too hard on unfolding the blanket, "Speaking of miracle workers, how's your mom?"

Elyza sighed, throwing the blanket over the couch. "Stressed, as always. I think it's really bad Rae." She glanced over at her best friend, "I've never seen her so freaked out… I don't think she's sleeping anymore and, and her face." Elyza grimaced, trying to figure out how to explain what she saw in her mother's eyes, "When she told me that we were coming down here… I don't know Rae, she looked, she looked the way she did after dad."

Raven put a hand on Elyza's knee and squeezed, "That shitty huh?"

"Yeah..."

Raven sat down next to Elyza and hooked an arm over the younger girl's shoulder, "It's gonna be okay Elyza, your mom is a genius among geniuses, and they have dozens more where she came from. They'll fix this."

Abby said almost the exact same thing when they parted at the airport. ' _This will all blow over in a few days.'_ Elyza couldn't help but feel like it was worse, calling so many doctors to work with the military, quarantines, and evacuations. Even the college was catching on. The whole reason that Raven had any time to spend with her was a nationwide holiday. Too many people getting sick. She played enough chess to know that you didn't move that many pieces around for a minor issue that would blow over in a few days.

"Yeah…" Elyza pressed her face into Raven's shoulder, "I'm sure it'll be fine."

Raven only allowed them half an hour to sulk about the shitstorm brewing outside before she double tapped Elyza's shoulder. "Alright, enough mopey shit. I only get you for a weekend and I'll be damned if I'm not going to enjoy it." Elyza sat up enough for Raven to stand and accepted the hand offered to her.

"What are we doing?"

"Well _I_ am going to make dinner, and _you_ are going to update me on life outside of the smoggy valley." Elyza raised an eyebrow at the dinner comment until she saw where Raven was headed. Phone in hand, Raven dug through her drawer of takeout menus with a huge grin.

"I know what you want and not a chance," Elyza replied, grabbing the first pizza menu she could find. "This one."

"Come on," Raven pouted, "No boys? Or girls I'm not picky. I need something in my life besides robotics projects and a bunch of eggheads too focused on their homework to notice the bitch sitting next to them."

"Nah, none of them." Elyza shrugged, "I'm not really looking for any of that stuff right now."

"Girl you need to get over that Finn business, guy was a fucking dick, jerking everyone around."

Elyza spun a pen on the countertop, avoiding Raven's knowing looks. "I'm over it."

"Mmmmn," Raven dialed the pizza place. "You're so over 'it' you became a national fucking monument to being over it." She rolled her eyes every few minutes while ordering their food, all while Elyza made it a point to ignore those looks. "So what movie is it gonna be tonight? I've got anything that the internet has to offer." Raven kicked Elyza's chair, "Come on dude, I'm sorry about the Finn comment okay?"

Elyza shook her head, "I-It's not Finn, you're right, he's a tool. It's whatever. I'm worried about what's out there." She jerked her chin, "Something bad is going to happen."

"Oookay, I think it's time to watch some Disney. You need lighthearted, carefree songs." Raven dragged Elyza to the couch and sat her down. "You are gonna stay here until you can smile and mean it, I will also accept singing along with the songs, but it has to be loud and awful. Got it?"

Elyza made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a scoff and nodded her agreement, "Yeah mom."

Raven vaulted over the couch and turned on the TV, "Jokes are a very good start, but they won't get you out of a minimum four movie marathon." She warned.

"I guess I'll have to be surly for the first four movies."

"Shut up." Raven flopped down next to her and turned on Cinderella. They made it through the first half of the movie before pizza showed up. After that, it was laughter and eating and rude commentary all the way to the end of the night and then some.

Disney movies were still playing when the sun rose. Raven was curled up on a pillow, her legs thrown across Elyza's lap and sleeping soundly. Elyza watched her sleep, wishing she could do the same. She appreciated all the effort Raven had gone through to make her feel welcome and try to take her mind off of things, but how could she just have fun? Her mother was off dealing with a potential epidemic while she marathoned fucking Disney.

"Fake it til you make it right?" Elyza murmured, laying her head down on her arm, "I hope you're right mom."

"Did you get any sleep?" Raven mumbled, nudging Elyza with her foot.

"Eh, I'll sleep when I'm dead" Elyza shrugged moving out from under Raven's legs. "I'm gonna take a shower then I'll make breakfast?" she asked

"If by make breakfast you mean pour some cereal in a bowl or toast a poptart, sure" Raven snarked "Shit, you know I'm your girl if you want something blown up or set on fire, that goes for food too."

Elyza laughed and shook her head as she collected her things and headed into the bathroom. Letting the water warm up as she brushed her teeth, Elyza couldn't help worrying. There was an epidemic out there, one bad enough that they had declared a national holiday. How long would Raven's stash of junk food last? And what would happen if they couldn't get delivery?

Mom had made it clear that they should stay inside and wait out the worst of the problem, but that had been all of the advice she had offered. She had been so focused on getting back to work that she really hadn't given much information, not that she probably could. Stepping into the steamy water Elyza decided that a trip to the grocery store was the first order of business. They could get some real food and then they could really hole up until this all blew over.

"I know you said you have cereal and stuff, but let's head to the grocery store and get all the fixings and I can make pancakes and bacon and we can eat real food for breakfast," Elyza said as she walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel.

"Uh, aren't we supposed to stay inside til your mom calls and gives the all-clear?" Raven asked, looking a little worried

"Yeah, but she probably forgot your eating habits and staying inside doesn't do us much good if we keep getting visits from random delivery people who could be sick," Elyza said with a grin.

"Yeah ok, you may have a point on that one. Give me some time to shower and change and I'll be ready to go. We can hit Kroger down the street." Raven agreed, heading to her bedroom to get ready for the day.

"Fuck me!" Raven moaned staring at the crazy grocery store parking lot "Why are there so many people in this state?"

"Because the weather is nice, and it wouldn't be a problem if you ever bought actual food, if you did then we could be chowing down and watching something but NOT Disney. I still can't get that Frozen song out of my head." Elyza whined.

"Shut up, let's get this done with already, I'm starving," Raven smacked Elyza's arm as they headed into the store. "What all do we need?"

"Well if I thought you'd use the stuff, I'd make pancakes from scratch," Elyza paused and looked at Raven who just rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of that idea " So we need pancake mix, eggs, milk, bacon, lunch meat, bread, cheese, some chicken and then snacks. Maybe we should get some stuff we don't need to heat in case there're issues with power?"

"First of all why would there be issues with power? It's a long weekend, not an apocalypse. And second why do we need so much food?" Raven asked

"Uh, have you seen you eat? My mom's paying for it anyway so we may as well eat well. We have no idea what's going to happen, so we should be prepared." Elyza answered as she grabbed a cart and started down the first aisle.

To say it was a mess would be a grievous understatement. Boxes tossed to the floor, a once-full container of frosted flakes was exploded across the linoleum like so many bags of sugar frosted confetti. A couple of dented cans, and most importantly, almost no undamaged packages of food on the shelves. It looked like a war-zone met a candy store riot.

"Shit, there's not much left. What's with people going crazy? And if you're being miss prepared, maybe we should get some bottled water and batteries for flashlights? Sometimes the water stops if the power is out for too long." Raven suggested as she dodged around carts and people blocking the shelves, throwing what she could into the cart.

"Yeah, we can do that. This is insane, it feels like the whole city is here." Elyza complained, barely avoid ramming yet another clueless idiot with her cart.

"Ok, so they are out of milk, and there's only frozen chicken left. Let's get the water and get the hell out of here already." Raven grunted as she dumped another armful of food into the cart.

"I thought you were unhappy getting groceries, I think you've added a ton more stuff to the cart than I have." Elyza pointed out "I'll head up to the lines, they are ridiculously long, while you get the water."

"Sure, send the cripple to get the heavy water," Raven joked "Meet you up there," she took off, not giving Elyza time to say anything else

The lines were ridiculous, all of the checkers had at least 7 people waiting in the que to be checked out. Elyza wasn't even close enough to belt to read any of the trashy magazine articles. Figuring she could at least get in a few levels of Candy Crush while she waited, Elyza pulled out her phone and started matching.

"Boo!" Raven yelled, laughing as Elyza jumped and almost dropped her phone. "They are out of water, there's literally none left so I got some iodine solution."

"Ok, how does that help us if there's no water coming into the house in the first place?" Elyza asked, leaning back onto the cart. She was now the 4th person in line.

"I figure if you are worried about it, we can fill up the bathtub." Raven shrugged,

"Better be after a serious washing. I'm not drinking ass water" Elyza laughed.

Raven smirked and shook the iodine bottle, "Hence this shit, it'll keep the ass out of the water."


	2. Ch 2 or Everything is NOT fine

Here's the next chapter. We'll keep switching between the two groups ER(Elyza and Raven) and AA (Alicia and Anya) for a while. Let us know what you think! - Wanheda89 and Bookwyrm743

"Mom, what are we doing?" Alicia set down the monopoly box, "I haven't been to school in days, we're planning a surprise trip to see Anya and we _all_ know how she feels about surprises. You stole meds for Nick so he can detox in the desert? And you won't let me help Matt _or_ Mrs. Cruz… Why won't you tell me anything?"

"Licia.." Nick put his hand on her shoulder.

"No!" She shrugged it off, "I have been here through everything. I make nice with Travis and Chris, I go to school, I show up when bad things happen, and I don't leave." She shot a dirty look at Nick, "So why does Nick know more about what's going on than I do?"

Madison pinched her nose, "It's-people are getting sick honey. That's all we know, people are getting sick and they're hurting each other, it's not safe to be around other people right now okay?"

"Is that what he was going on about when they picked him up?" She pointed at Nick, "Why do you believe him? Why do you _always_ believe him?"

"Keep your voice down." Madison snapped, looking to the window nervously. "Look, it's not just Nick, I've seen it too. Whatever it is, the police are going to handle it and we are going to wait it out."

"Where? With what? Everyone's been packing up and leaving, where are we gonna get food and water? How is Nick going to detox? You know he can't wean himself off."

"Can we not talk about me like I'm not here?" Nick asked softly.

"You're never here." Alicia snapped, "Mom you can't just drag us into the middle of nowhere without a plan and expect us to be okay!"

"I don't, I'm not." Madison shook her head, "Honey I know you're scared but we have a plan. Travis will come back and then we can get out of here for a week or two, we have enough for that and by then everything will have blown over."

"If everything is so bad then why are we waiting for Travis? He knows where Anya is, he can find her just fine on his own."

"Stop that right now, we aren't going to leave them behind. We are going to wait right here for Travis and Chris and his mother, and we are going to stay with Anya for a week. Two tops, and then we will be right back home again." Madison sighed, "I don't have all the answers hon, but I'll try not to keep you in the dark. For now, the best we can do is sit tight, and keep quiet."

Alicia looked away, more ashamed of herself than she would admit. Mom was just trying to keep everything together, and Nick… She had learned long ago that nothing she did or said would bring back the old Nick, she shouldn't have let him get to her the way he always did. "Okay." She retreated to the hall cupboard where they kept the board games.

"The Trans have a shotgun, I tried to lift it once. Come on, this way!" Alicia followed Nick and her mom over the garbage can, trying not to think about what Nick would have done with the Tran's gun. While her mom was digging for ammunition and Nick bowled through the house like it was his own, Alicia picked her way through the living room carefully, looking at the pictures of a happy family. The Trans had always been really nice, and Susan used to babysit Alicia when she was home sick from school. Were they still going to be friendly after the chaos settled and they came back home?

It would be weird. Everyone looking with suspicion and wondering what you did because you thought you had to, wondering what you were willing to do. Alicia wondered what her mom would be willing to do with her stolen shotgun. "Mom we shouldn't be in here."

"Shh, look!" Nick pointed, "Someone just walked into our house."

They were probably doing the same thing as Nick and Mom, Alicia was ready to scream in frustration. No one was listening to her. With everyone going crazy, maybe he was just trying to find a place to hide! But Mom and Nick didn't care. They just shoved a pair of shells into the gun and raced back through the maze of trellises that made up the majority of the yard with Nick upfront muttering the path through.

Alicia lagged behind, none of this felt real, all the panic and the 'sick people' it felt like a mob mentality, mass panic orchestrated by some news hub looking to get some new headlines. "Shit! Shit! Where are the rest of the shells?"

"I left them on the table. Alicia go back and get the rest of the shells!"

She turned back around and jogged back through the maze, grateful she didn't have to take part in the shared insanity of Nick and Mom. Alicia found the box of shells on its side, the pieces scattered under the table right as the power came back on. She should have felt better, the return to normality, just cleaning up a mess in Susan's kitchen but it felt wrong. Alicia flicked the light off and shoved the shells into the box, feeling a weird panic rise in her chest that only grew when she heard dry rasping breathing from behind her.

Alicia looked over her shoulder and saw Susan, but it wasn't Susan. Mrs. Tran stood in the hallway with her hands outstretched to Alicia and a slack expression that combined with the nerves of breaking into someone's house just sent a jolt of terror through Alicia's veins.

She took what she had gathered and bolted out the back door, running through the trellis maze. She tried desperately to remember the pattern Nick had mumbled through the cacophony of crashing footsteps from her own feet and those of Mrs. Tran close on her heels.

Alicia felt a gnarled hand brush her back and shrieked, scrambling up the fence. A hand appeared in front of her and she grabbed it without thinking, hauling herself up the last few feet of the fence. Alicia felt fingers slide over her ankle before she crashed into Nick's chest.

All of her was shaking as she followed Nick into the house. Travis was fighting with one of the neighbors, talking loudly to him, trying to talk him down while keeping himself between Madison and the man, trying to protect him from the shotgun. Travis was yelling at Mom and telling her to put down the gun and he turned to look at her and the man lunged at Travis, knocking him to the ground and trying to bite and scratch him.

An old man grabbed the gun from Madison and shot their neighbor. Travis pushed the man off of him and stood up, "Wh-why did you do that?"

"You knew this man?"

"Yeah I did he's-"

They turned around when the man stood up again, his face half gone. Eyes a milky white. Alicia gasped in horror when the old man lifted up the gun again and put it in their neighbor's mouth.

Everything was silent after the gun went off. The old man handed the gun back to Mom and returned to the two women cowering in the corner next to Chris and his mom. There was blood everywhere, and chunks of things that Alicia couldn't bring herself to think about. She hid her face in Nick's shoulder, trying to breathe through her mouth but she could taste the blood on the air and it was all so horrible.

"Pack the car." Madison interrupted Travis' angry rambling about the man being sick, harmless.

"No, Mrs. Salazar is hurt, she can't-"

"They can stay in the house as long as they want Travis. Pack the car." Madison looked him in the eye, daring him to argue one more time, daring him to see how long they would stay here in this massacre of a living room.

"Come on, you don't need to see this." Nick dragged Alicia out before she could start hyperventilating for real. He held her tight, rocking her slowly while Madison, Travis, and Eliza argued in the living room about what to do.

Anya saw the truck approaching with three kids and Travis's useless ex in the bed packed tight with canned food and camping supplies. "Well Shit."


	3. Ch 3 The best offense is a good defense

Elyza flinched at the sound of more screams and crashes down the hall. "They're getting closer."

"Then stop fucking-" Raven grunted, trying to move the couch against the door, "-Listening and help me with this bitch." Elyza stopped wringing her hands and pushed the other end of the couch, together they braced it under the doorknob. Usually, Raven's need to act when things got bad was annoying at best, but at this moment Elyza could have kissed her.

The screams had started early in the morning, getting closer and closer as the hours passed. Elyza had poked her head out early on and seen a trio of frat boys forcing their way into one of the apartments with a couple of crowbars and well-placed kicks.

Raven had immediately gotten to work on barricading the door. "Now what? We can't stay here for long." Elyza dug through the cupboards for the remaining food and grimaced at the meager stack. "We could hang out for two or three days, but I don't think the door will hold."

"Uh, fuck that." Raven snagged her backpack. It had heavy padding on the straps and could easily hold a week's worth of groceries without breaking a sweat. It was built for physics textbooks and heavy-duty laptops. "I promised your mom that you would be safe. Safe doesn't mean trapping you in an apartment where the best case scenario is starving to death. Put the non-perishables in here."

"Right, you're right. So where do we go? The city has to be in shambles if the cops haven't shown up yet. Emergency shelters… That would be hospitals, police stations, churches, and schools." Elyza mumbled, shoving pancake mix and bottled water into the pack. "Hospitals are going to have high concentrations of disease, police stations are down. Without a response to rioting, they have to be in bad shape. Churches are going to be full of crazies screaming about the end times and homeless people, almost as bad as the hospitals."

"What are you muttering about?" Raven asked, shoving the jean quilt from Grandma Reyes into Elyza's smaller suitcase.

"Shelters. You know of any schools in the area? High schools specifically, higher income if you can, the rest might get looted or burned down. God knows I would have liked to burn Skyline to the foundation." She snorted.

Raven bit her lip, "I think there's one past the zoo? It had some stupid magnet mascot or something that caught my eye. It's like thirty minutes on the freeway."

"Backroads," Elyza said, "We can't trust the freeway to be moving."

"Okay so like double that. Worst comes to worst we can hit the stadium or the hospital, they're both nearby." Raven offered, digging through the mess that was their living room for anything else they needed. Elyza had food, water, and a first aid kit, so Raven was grabbing a few changes of clothes and some blankets to sleep in.

"Perfect, now let's get the hell out of here."

"About that…" Raven looked out her window to the ground that was a solid fifteen feet away, "How the fuck are we getting out of here?"

"You're the engineer." Elyza snarked.

Raven rolled her eyes, "First of all, I'm in training, second of all fuck you, third of all… No, no the second hit it pretty well. Unless we're gonna jailbreak it and tie the sheets into a rope then I'm out of ideas, and if we really want that to work we would have to braid it and that's going to take longer than the door has but-"

"Just jump."

Raven rolled her eyes, "Hold this." She shoved the suitcase at Elyza and retreated to her room. "Motherfucking frat boy bitches-" Raven reappeared curled up trying to drag her thick mattress from the bedroom, "-Breaking into my goddamn apartment. I HOPE YOU SHIT GLASS!" She yelled at the door.

The edge of the mattress caught on the blankets and dirty clothes on the floor, dragging them and then catching on old take-out boxes. Soon enough it looked like Raven was trying to pull the whole room out the window.

The doorknob rattled. Elyza and Raven looked at each other in a panic.

"I think they heard you."

"No shit Sherlock! Help me get this bitch out the window!"

Together they managed to launch the mattress out, and before Elyza could ask questions, Raven hoisted the backpack and threw it out the window. It landed with a wince-worthy smack and bounce, but as far as they could tell, nothing exploded.

"Looks like minimal injuries to me." Raven shoved the suitcase out next and without hesitation threw herself after it.

"FUCK!" She rolled off the mattress with a groan, checking her brace, "Whatever whore invented spring mattresses is a bitch."

"Are you okay?" Elyza shouted.

"Better then you'll be if you're still up there when the door breaks!" Raven snarked, still laying in the grass.

Elyza launched out of the window, trying to land as flat as she could. She did a pretty good job of it, but she forgot about the backpack full of canned food and water bottles right where she planned to put her skull. It didn't work so well.

"Ohhhh I heard that crack from over here." Raven pushed herself to her feet with a groan, "If you split your head open I'm going to fucking kill you."

Elyza squeezed her eyes shut against the awful spinning, "It's fine Rae, it's probably fine." She thought about sitting up and decided against it. Vomiting would lose precious resources. Who knew how long it would be before Dominoes started delivering again.

"Liar." Raven took her hand and pulled Elyza to her feet. "You good to walk? I don't think the chuckleheads upstairs appreciated my hopes and dreams about their future bowel movements."

"Good enough to get to the car." Elyza muttered, "Come on." She grabbed the heavy backpack and swayed with it.

"I may be crippled but at least I can stand up. Gimme." Rae snagged the bag out of Elyza's hands and slung it over her back in one easy motion.

Elyza silently agreed with the sentiment and grabbed the rolling suitcase.

They made a break for the car, weaving through a thin crowd of students scrambling for their vehicles. So far no one was being stopped from leaving, but it was only so long before the looters would turn to vehicles.

It felt like everyone had a phone in hand, desperately trying to call their loved ones, warn them about the chaos in the city. "Don't they know the lines are down?" Elyza mumbled, "Emergency lines only."

"They don't know what else to do babe. Come on, get in the car." Raven opened the door of her jeep and helped Elyza inside. Despite the pronounced pain in her left hip, Rae packed their bags in the back of the car and pulled herself into the driver's seat. "We'll hole up in the school until we can get a better idea of what's going on okay?"

Elyza nodded, eyes glazed over as she watched the panicked movements of the crowd. Raven gunned it, worried about the way Elyza was acting. Elyza frowned, trying to focus on a weird change, the concerned voices became screams as one of the frat boys launched themselves at someone.

The two became the center of an odd open space in the crowd and a couple of people turned around and just ran as fast as they could, shoving people aside. The two stood and they attacked others.

All too soon the orderly panic turned into frantic chaos in their rearview mirror. "Weird…"

"What is?"

"I think that frat boy bit someone?" Elyza sounded so out of it that Raven stepped on the gas a little harder. Hallucination or reality, it was motivation to move a little faster.

Raven snapped her fingers in front of Elyza's face, "Hey, focus, before you go fruity in the loops I need to know how to treat a head injury."

Elyza nodded, feeling less out of it than before, but still very groggy. "Rest, and stop any bleeding. I don't think my brain is swelling, but if I start going really nuts check for a pupil response to lights, awareness of external stimuli, and... I think that's it? Based on the size of the lump in my head I don't think I have a concussion, but to be safe I should not be allowed to sleep for the next twelve hours-ish?"

"I'm hearing a lot more question marks than I would like to." Raven snapped, aggressively passing an overloaded minivan. "You wanna try again?"

"No, I don't! My head feels like I filled it with strawberry cheesecake pudding and I'm dizzy and sick and you're driving like a crazy person while I'm just trying to figure out which way is up. So unless you want me to hurl on you, deal with it." Elyza slumped back against the seat, grabbing hold of it. It felt like her head was going to explode.

"Okay well, I wouldn't be driving like a crazy person if they would just-Shit!" Raven jerked the wheel hard to try and swerve out of the way of a car that tried to t-bone them and they both felt the wheels on Elyza's side of the car lift up from the pavement.

The Jeep rocked back onto all four wheels and sped down the road. "Fuck you too asshole!"

"What was that about?"

"I don't know, the light was green," Raven ducked her head to look through the rear view at the traffic light behind them, "Damn it! The traffic lights are on the fritz, the one behind us keeps cycling."

"Uh, what? Shit, I think I'm bleeding" Elyza swiped her hand over the back of her neck, finding it smeared.

"Fuck, should we just head to the hospital?" Raven asked as she sliced through an intersection filled with clueless drivers.

"No, I should be ok. We really need to avoid hospitals if we can. I can clean it up as soon as we get to the school." Elyza pressed some napkins into the back of her head, hissing at the pressure. "How much further?"

"You are not starting that shit unless you are going to throw up." Raven scowled "You aren't going to throw up are, because I will cut you if you throw up in my car."

"No, I don't think I'm going to throw up, but these roads are chaos. We are going to get killed if we don't get off them soon." Elyza said.

"Fine!" Raven stomped on the brake and pulled a sharp right turn that lifted their wheels up for a brief moment before crashing them back to the asphalt. The jeep bounced with a pair of sickening cracks.

"What was that?"

"You don't want to know." This street had almost no cars on it, but there were just enough pedestrians that Raven was afraid to check her mirrors.

"Seriously, how much longer till we get there. This is not ok"

"It's five minutes away I swear. See? There's the old zoo right there." Raven pointed out the decrepit sign to their left.

"FUCK ME!" Elyza yelled as the world began to swirl and tilt with an odd screaming noise that pierced through the fog she had been in since jumping out of the window.

"Buy me dinner first…" Raven groaned, trying to get her bearings. Everything seemed to be sideways. Cracks in the windshield and a lamp post that grew to the right instead of up were the only things she could see.

"What the hell just happened Rae?"

"I think.." Raven looked up to Elyza, "That we are sideways?" She undid her seatbelt and wiggled out of her seat to climb out the back of the jeep to assess the damage. "Shit on a stick. Those assholes t-boned us." She leveled a dirty look at the fancy ass Mercedes that was spun-out in the intersection behind them with a crumpled nose and shattered windshield.

"Come on, let's get to the school"

"Without my baby? How about we smack your grandma while we're at it."

"Well unless you can put this back on all four tires, I don't really see how we can take him with us."

Raven walked around the massacred vehicle looking ready to cry, "Look at what that bitch did to you…" She leaned against the hood and did her best to hug her baby. "I'm not leaving."

"That's a problem, cause you aren't staying here either and I will drag your ass with me if I have to" Elyza reached in and pulled out their bags coming around to where Raven was mourning the car.

"I'll come back for you Winona." She promised, kissing the hood.

"God, come on" Elyza grabbed onto Raven's arm, hauling her away as best she could while dragging their bags along too.

"It's this way." Raven sniffled, taking the suitcase from Elyza and picking up the pace. The sidewalks felt far less hectic than the roads had, but both felt exposed.

"What is wrong with the lady in the other car? Why is she growling?" Elyza asked, more than a little weirded out.

"I dunno man, but she looks fine to me." Raven looked over her shoulder and swallowed hard. There was blood smeared across the woman's face and dripping from her mouth.

"I take it back, she doesn't look fine."

"We should help." Elyza turned back towards the car.

Raven grabbed her arm, "Are you kidding? That's the piece of trash that just totaled Winona!"

"Winona?" Elyza shook her head, "Not the point. We have to help her, we can't just leave her there and it might take too long for help to get here."

"Yes! Winona. It's an amazing name. And she better be fucking grateful" Raven huffed as she stomped to the damaged Mercedes.

Elyza walked up and opened the car door, "Ma'am my name is Elyza Lex, are you ok?"

The woman in the car just stared at her groaning and growling. _Weird, but maybe she's in a lot of pain._

"Ma'am, can you tell me your name and where you are hurt?" Elyza asked as the woman reached towards her, grabbing onto her arm. There was still no real response.

"Ma'am ambulances and the police are really busy and probably won't be able to get here anytime soon, so I need you to tell me if you are injured. If you don't and we move you, we could make any spinal injuries even worse. Are you hurt?" Elyza asked again, looking at Raven who just shrugged and stood there.

"Ok, can you unbuckle your seatbelt?" Nothing but more groans and guttural growls.

"I'm going to reach across you and unbuckle the seatbelt so we can help get you out of the car." Elyza turned from the woman "Rae, I'll swing her legs around to the ground and then you take her left side, I'll take her right and we can pull her out of the car."

"Why are we trying to help her? She's acting fucking weird and we could fuck her up without meaning to. We should just head to the school, see if they have an emergency communication system and radio for help from there" Raven urged, tugging on Elyza's arm.

"Rae. It won't take long." Elyza waited for Raven's nod before turning back to the woman in the car. The woman had started groaning louder and was gripping Elyza's arm with enough force it was starting to bruise. Elyza shifted and stretched across the woman reaching for the seat belt release at her sight. As she got close enough to reach the woman lunged towards her and sunk her teeth in, knocking Elyza into the steering wheel. "Shit!" Elyza yelled, struggling to disengage from the woman's mouth.

"Elyza! Get the fuck off of her, you bitch!" Raven yelled and started hitting at the woman's side and head. A few good hits in her face and she lost the hold she had on Elyza's shoulder, but the woman still had hold of Elyza's arm.

"She won't let go of my arm Rae!" Elyza struggled trying to get away, she had managed to get her body out of the car and had been able to put some space between them, but no matter how she fought and hit the woman just would not let go of her arm.

"Move towards the back, E!" Raven yanked Elyza back and grabbed hold of the door, "Let go bitch or I will take off your arm!"

After a moment's hesitation, while the woman continued trying to haul Elyza back to her, Raven slammed the door into her arm. The woman's arm made a nasty cracking noise and they both saw a bone shard splitting through the skin, but it didn't even phase the woman.

Raven did it a second and third time, slamming the door into the woman's upper arm as hard as she could. Finally, when there was blood oozing down the woman's arm and her bones were visible through her flesh she finally lost her grip on Elyza.

Elyza fell back to the pavement and scrambled away from the car.

"Are you ok? She fucking bit you!" Raven demanded as she began to check Elyza over.

"No, I'm ok. I mean she tried to bite me. I think. But she just got a mouthful of the backpack strap. My arm is killing me, but I don't think it's broken or dislocated" Elyza rubbed her arm and stared at the woman who was still struggling against the seatbelt trying to reach them.

"Fucking crazy bitch!" Raven kicked the door shut one last time and they both watched in horror as the woman's arm fell to the ground, completely severed. "Oh god…"

The woman in the car scratched at the window, growling at them and snapping her teeth. "I think I might puke," Elyza mumbled, looking pale as a sheet.

Raven looked around and realized they were in the middle of the road and hauled Elyza up by her backpack straps. "Puke later, we need to get out of here."

Together they sprinted the last mile to the school, stumbling in through the metal double doors.

The banner across the front said, "Temecula High, home of the Mighty Magnets"


	4. Knowing what the f& is happening

Civilians, Auntie Anya, Cannibalism and Mr. Pickles the Fucking Fish (my favorite).

"You want to run that one by me again Travis?" Anya set her hands on her hips and stood between him and the door to her home. Okay, the door to her shack, but it was _her_ shack.

"We just need to hang out for a few days." Travis tried to explain again, "People are getting sick and hurting each other, and we needed to get out of the city."

"Where do I put this?" Alicia held up a pair of sleeping bags.

"Throw those in my room." Anya waved her through. When Travis tried to get by she put her hand on his chest, "No. I get grabbing any paddle you can get your hands on in a shitcreek. I'm talking about the part where you have the gall to assume you get to step foot in my house without so much as a courtesy ' _hey sis I'm invading the only peaceful place left in the world and I'm dragging my problems along with me_ '.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna make a bunch of kids die in the desert with your sorry ass, but that doesn't mean I have to lift a finger for you."

"Anya," Travis sighed, "I know we've had our differences, but would you please consider letting us stay? I'll stay in the truck if that's what you want, just…" He rubbed his neck, trying to think of a way to fix all the bad blood between them or to make amends somehow.

Anya pursed her lips, deciding he was too pathetic to leave on the porch all night, it would be worse than putting the fucking fish out of its misery. "My house, my rules. Got it?"

"Yeah, Yeah of course. Where do you want us to put all the food we brought?" Travis asked, trying to find a way to avoid Anya's glare.

"I have a root cellar around the back of the house. Leave it there until I have time to sort through it all." She waved him off and marched to the car to help the kids unpack the sleeping gear they'd brought. "There are no drugs here Nick, so if I find you rummaging through my drawers you will regret it."

"I already do auntie!" He joked, ducking into the house before she could throw something at him.

"I am not your Fucking Auntie!" Anya yelled, rolling her eyes.

"But I thought you said you didn't mind when I called you that!" Alicia poked her head out of the kitchen window, pouting at her 'aunt'.

"The boys are assholes about it, and I actually like you. Sometimes" Anya smirked at Alicia who gave her a small grin.

"You hear that?" Alicia ducked back into the house, "Anya likes me more than all of you!"

"Yeah yeah, keep talking!" Nick shouted.

Chris glowered at the ground as he shouldered past his parents, "She's not even related to them."

"I don't think she likes anyone she's actually related to" Travis muttered as he hauled food from the truck to the cellar.

Madison bumped his shoulder, carrying her own load of dried food, "It doesn't matter if she likes us, just as long as she lets us stay until we can go home again."

"And when might that be?" Anya asked

"Just a week or two," Madison promised, sounding like she was begging fate as much as she was begging Anya to believe her.

"A week or two out here with me? Over some sort of flu? What's going?"

"We don't know." Travis interrupted, "People are just getting sick, and acting strangely. We wanted to get away before it could spread." Anya knew that tone, that pleading for a little more time. The last time she'd heard him like that he was promising their parents that the dog was fine. Their rabid dog.

"What do you mean acting strangely?"

"They're eating people." Nick said quietly, "I saw it. My uh, my friend she-she had a knife-" He gestured to his left side, "-in her… And she, she was eating someone."

"I don't want to hear about your fucked up high, Nick. That's not actually a problem the rest of us have to deal with" Anya rolled her eyes.

"You leave him alone." Madison got in Anya's face, "Nick has his problems but he's not a liar."

"No, she's right Madi." Travis stopped her, "That church was a mess, and something really bad happened, but there weren't any canni-cannibals there, you know that." He stumbled over the word that caused him so much discomfort.

"And what about Calvin? He was shot AND run over by a damn truck and he was still moving around. Half of his face was ripped off and he was still moving!" Madison insisted "You can't tell me that was normal!"

"Mom," Nick tugged at his hair, curling in on himself a bit, "It's fine, it's-" He shook his head, "I'm used to it. She'll see soon enough. You all will." He went back inside the house, chewing on one of his nails.

"Wow," Anya raised her eyebrows, "He got weirder. I didn't think that was possible." She looked to Madison, "You've got yourself one seriously fucked up kid there."

"He is fine," Madison growled, "You don't understand what's going on."

"Then show me."

"Hey now," Travis got between them, "I don't think that's a good idea, it's dangerous out there."

"Hey, Anya! Where am I sleeping? And where'd you put Mr. Pickles? I haven't seen him in forever!" Alicia asked, breaking the tension between the adults. It was obvious they were getting nowhere.

"You can crash on the floor in my room. Just put your sleeping bag at the foot of the bed. And that fucking fish is on the windowsill in the bathroom. I keep hoping it falls into the toilet and dies. The boys can crash in the living room and you two can sleep on the office floor." Anya directed. "But don't think we are done with this conversation. I will be getting more information from you and people who know what dangerous is."

"I'll stay in the living room with the boys if you don't mind," Lyza mumbled.

Anya jerked and moved back into the house "Fucking forgot she was here."

Alicia snickered and helped Lyza with the small duffels they'd packed with clothes. "Come on."

"Fucking phone lines.." Anya muttered, slamming her house phone onto the receiver. She dug through a footlocker for her sat-phone and started dialing up her contacts. No one picked up. Over a dozen high ranking military officials and not one of those pricks could bother to pick up the damn phone.

Anya kicked the locker and tossed the phone back inside. Time to dig out the monstrous radio setup in the cellar. It wouldn't get anyone in charge, but at least she could talk to others around the country and find why out her home was being invaded by Travis and his growing harem of angry wives.

It took a few minutes to find all of the random parts and get them put together. This was not her preferred method of communication. Too many amateurs playing around. But until someone answered their damn sat-phone it was the only way to get information. Turning the dial, sorting through static and garbled communications Anya listened, trying to get something understandable out of it.

Finally, she found a military channel.

"This is Sergeant Forrester of the SASR, I'd like to know what the fuck is going on." She barked after a few minutes of confused listening, the chatter wasn't giving her what she needed. Everyone was going on about code Cobalts, and walkers, and deados and none of it made a lick of sense.

The line went quiet for just a moment before a familiar voice broke through the static, "This is Colonel Pines at the Pendleton naval base in San Diego, state your location, Sergeant Forrester."

"Indra thank fuck. I got a bunch of shave tails on my ass telling all kinds of bull about cannibals and drug lords that need multiple instances of mental recalibration to take down, please advise."

"Then you have the short of it. I'm running an offensive on the infected here in Diego, I could use your help on this-" The static got stronger, and other voices were starting to push through the supposedly secure line, "Meet us in the-"

"Indra? Colonel Pines!" Anya tried to adjust the radio, fine-tuning the exact frequency.

"Isn't long before HQ calls in the-" More static, "napalming the major hubs-" The com line was overwhelmed with interfering voices all calling for backup or trying to talk to their families. It was a mess of civilian and military traffic all blending together into one panicked cry for help. Setting the radio back onto the table Anya stood and began pacing.

This was insane and if it weren't for the fact that Indra would probably keel over dead if she ever made a joke, let alone on an official channel, Anya still wouldn't believe. It still wasn't really clear. Something about the infected. People obviously. And walkers. Which sounded a hell of a lot like something out of a Halloween movie, not real life. But whatever it was, there was nothing confusing about napalming major hubs. That was very clear and rather desperate.

"Told you," Nick said from the top of the stairs, arms crossed over his chest. "Maybe I'm a little screwy sometimes, but I know the difference… I know what dreams feel like. What's out there? It's no dream."

"When did you become the voice of reason?" Anya snarked, taking her confusion and frustration out on the easy target.

"Dunno." He shrugged, "Maybe when your world started to look more like mine."

Anya shot him a glare, "Sure kid, cus you've lived in such an awful cannibal filled world all your life." She put the radio back where it belonged and shooed him out the of the cellar, "Move it, we've got to unpack all your shit right?"

They rejoined the others just in time for Anya to begin regretting her relation to Travis all over again. Her cozy shack was packed to the rafters with so many extra bodies, there were asses on every flat surface in the living room and one in the kitchen that she was quick to rectify. She grabbed Chris' leg and jerked him off the counter with a scowl, "Keep your ass out of my food. Got it squirt?"

He straightened up, trying to get in her face with his gangly little body, "There's nothing even on the counter!"

"Not anymore. Keep it that way." She turned around to all the forlorn faces and bouncing knees. If ever a group of civvies could look like a powder keg ready to blow, this was it. Anya clapped a hand on Chris' shoulder, "Grab Nick and Alicia, we're going on a quick trip around the property."

He stumbled and hated being treated like a little kid, but Anya never disappointed on her field trips. It was the only reason he tolerated her treatment of him. Madison looked into the kitchen when she saw Chris looking oddly excited, "What's up?"

Rule number one of Aunt Anya's trips, never tell the adults. "She's making us check the fence around the property." Chris grouched, trying to look appropriately annoyed.

Anya nodded her confirmation. "Kids need to run, and the fence needs checking. I'll keep them safe, just like always."

Madison didn't necessarily approve, but she had seen how down Nick and Alicia were. It would do them good to get out and move in a familiar place, to feel like kids again. "Keep us updated. If anything happens we can come get you in the truck."

Anya stopped herself from rolling her eyes and nodded, "Course Madison, I wouldn't think of doing anything else."

Feed our Muse Monsters with Follows/Favorites and Reviews, things are FINALLY getting started.


	5. Not Every Mushroom is Friendly

My most humble apologies...but this sites UI sucks and AO3 is so much easier. On the upside that means you can all binge a few chapters today, on the downside if you want more regular updates, follow on AO3 (Lagging Behind by Bookwyrm743 and Wanheda89) OR comment/favorite/follow so I feel guilty for not posting on here.

Ready?

Set.

Go!

"You know high school is bad enough when it's full of people and noise, but this is really creepy," Elyza said as they moved through the hallways of the deserted high school.

"I'll take this over that woman any day. Come on, let's see if we can find a room with a sofa or something."

"Where is everyone?" Elyza looked through the windows into the different rooms expecting to see someone. "It's like a ghost town."

"I don't know, but right now I'll take it. Where do you think the teachers lounge will be?" Raven asked, "I don't want to spend all fucking night looking through this place."

"Uh near the cafeteria?" Elyza suggested, shrugging.

"That might be helpful if I knew where the fucking cafeteria is." Raven responded.

Elyza grimaced, "Yeah because I'm going to know where the damn teacher's lounge is." She jogged down a hallway, "Okay, I think this is just a mirror of the other halls, these are all just classrooms. Are there any stairs?"

Raven started looking down the halls for stairs, "Over here! I've got a staircase and an elevator." She sniffed the air, "Do these pampered assholes have a pool? You smell that?"

"Who cares?" Elyza rolled her eyes, "Come on, let's see if there's anything worth finding up there." They climbed the stairs continuing to look around. "Hey look, its an emergency escape map," Elyza said, inspecting it further. "So this must be the cafeteria and since these rooms to our left don't have a room number, I'm betting those are the admin rooms."

"Huh, who knew those stupid maps would actually be useful one day." Raven started off in the direction of the cafeteria. "You seeing this shit? They have a pool, their own football stadium, shop classes, home ec, and a full chemistry lab! Lucky little assholes."

"Damn, if you had gone to school here you'd have blown the place up ten times over just in the chemistry lab." Elyza laughed

Raven did her best to look offended, "Only ten times? I will have you know that I am a public menace."

"Eh, someone hot would have come by and distracted you" Elyza grinned and nudged Raven's side.

"Whatever. Look they labeled the teacher's lounge for us. How nice." Raven tried the door handle. "And they even left it unlocked. What kind of trusting idiots teach here?"

Elyza opened the door and a piece of cardboard fell out of the jamb, "Looks to me like someone forgot their key." She tested the handle, "It locks automatically, so don't close it without the cardboard." Elyza held it open for Raven, "Seems like a safe enough place for a night or two. Maybe we can raid the vending machines."

Raven nodded her agreement and started examining the snack machine. "Ooookay, I got this." She unzipped the suitcase and pulled out a tiny screwdriver kit. She started messing with the hinges on the machine and after a few minutes and a solid kick, Raven knocked the door right off. "Voila! I give you snackfood."

Elyza curled up against Raven, both of them tucked under grandma Reyes' blanket and full of stale chips and vaguely fresh candy bars. "Do you think that whatever was wrong with that old lady is the disease my mom is working on?"

"If there's more than one nasty ass thing going around, I don't want to know about it." Raven said quietly looking a bit freaked out, "That wasn't normal Elyza. I don't know what this is supposed to be. I thought it was like, a really bad flu that's going around or something. But this is way more fucked up than that. That lady didn't even flinch when her arm…"

"Hey, don't freak about that," Elyza hugged Raven into her side using her uninjured arm, "Whatever is going on, we've got each other, no matter what."

"You can bet on that." Raven took a deep breath, "Try to get some sleep. No one's getting through that door tonight."

Elyza perched on the counter in the teacher's lounge, peering out the window while she snacked on another bag of chips. The streets were practically empty. Every once in a while a person would shuffle between cars, or maybe a pair of people holding hands to keep close. Eventually she got bored and started flipping through the magazines scattered around the room. Most of them were educational things, talking about new teaching techniques and how to organize your classroom, because when everything goes to shit you need something to litter the streets and start the fires.

She tossed the magazine aside and went back to staring out the window.

"You gonna do that all day long?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

Elyza shook her head, "It's too creepy to wander the school, up here it just feels… Like we're on a cloud and nothing can touch us." She rested her face against the cool glass, folding and refolding her snack wrappers.

Raven threw herself back onto the couch, "This is actually the worst." She sighed, tapping nonsense patterns on the armrest, "I may die of boredom."

"Oh my god," Elyza turned her head to follow the trio of people walking towards the wreckage of Winona in the middle of the intersection.

"What is it?" Raven hopped off the couch and looked over Elyza's shoulder, "Oh shit…"

The trio consisted of two men arguing on their way to the car and a woman leading the way to the crumpled mercedes. To the freaky old lady they had left behind. "I can't look," Elyza ducked her face down into her hands, "Tell me they just kept walking, please?"

Raven's grip on Elyza's shoulder tightened as she watched. The woman peered into the glass and waved to the men, calling them over to the driver side door. Together they opened the car and the taller man reached over and unbuckled the old lady's seat belt before falling with a scream of pain, one hand clutched to his shoulder.

Elyza winced as the grip on her shoulder became painful and continued to watch as the man on the ground started cussing. The lady in the car was moving slowly, but she managed to fall out of the car and began to pick herself up. It was ungainly and halting, hindered by the lack of an arm on her left side, but she managed. _How is she still moving, her arm was cut off, she should have bled out._ The unhurt members of the trio had knelt beside their injured friend and were helping him up, they didn't notice the old woman, didn't pay any mind to her.

Not until she took a chunk out of the lady that had insisted on helping the old woman out of her car. Raven couldn't take her eyes away, but she wished she had done the same as Elyza. She looked just like any old grandma at the store with her flower dress and her fluffy perm, just like every grandma except for the blood dripping down her chin and the stringy chunks of muscle she was ripping out of the poor woman's back.

Elyza began to shift and Raven put her hands over Elyza's, "Don't look."

"We should help them-" Elyza pushed Raven's hands off her eyes in time to see the man stand over the grandma and begin bashing her face against the asphalt, over and over until he was splattered with blood and gore and knelt over his friends.

He started going through all of their pockets, taking everything he could before he took off running down the street without a backwards glance. "He's just leaving them on the street?" Elyza was horrified by all of it, the gore and the brutality was just so inhumane, but he could have at least stayed with his friends who were writhing on the ground in pain, bleeding out.

The grandma must have gotten a major artery with her first bite… The man on the ground had already stopped moving. "That's so awful… What the hell is wrong with people?" Elyza pushed herself off the counter and out of Raven's arms, "What the hell is wrong with us? We just stood there and watched! We could have helped!"

"Elyza…" Raven ran a hand through her hair, "Even if we could have gotten there, what could we have done? That lady was crazy, she was-she was eating people! You don't get that batshit insane and just go down." She saw movement and Raven's eyes went wide as saucers, "Oh my god."

"What happened?" Elyza moved back to the window, unable to keep away from the grisly reminder of their new reality. "That's not possible."

The man was on his hands and knees, crawling towards the old woman's body. There was no way he had survived that much blood loss, but he was up and moving.. And crouching.. And eating. Elyza put her hand over her mouth and ran for the nearest sink.

"That's fucked up." Raven mumbled.

"Did you hear that?"

"Rae I don't think I can handle seeing anything else right now." Elyza was trying everything she could to wash the taste of bile out of her mouth, but short of wasting water on a rinse and spit, she hadn't come up with anything.

"It's not outside." Raven pressed her ear to the door, "I think there's someone in the school."

"Well let's go then!" She grabbed the doorknob.

"Wait!" Raven slapped a hand onto the door, "What if they aren't friendly? What if whoever's out there took 'flesh-eating disease' to a whole new level? It's not safe out there."

"It's not safe in here either." Elyza snapped, "We're surviving on a half empty vending machine and a few bottles of water, bottles that are going to run out pretty soon. Dying out there or in here, it's all the same, the only question is how long it takes."

Elyza grabbed her backpack and stormed out of the room, not waiting for Raven. "Fucking hell." Raven shoved a few important things into a duffel and ran after Elyza as fast as her gimpy leg would let her.

Raven burst into the hallway and Elyza was nowhere to be seen. She could hear boots echoing on the linoleum but she couldn't tell which way. "Elyza?" Raven hissed, her friend couldn't have gotten far in the minute she was out of sight. "Elyza?" Raven raised her voice and winced as her echoes mixed with the bootsteps, "This place is fucking creepy!" She shouted, breaking into a slow jog down the hallway they had found the stairs on.

Raven clattered down the steps and rounded the corner just to run headlong into Elyza. Both girls let out a shriek and Raven bounced off her friend, landing on her ass. "What the fuck was that?" She snapped, pushing herself to her feet with a wince, "Don't you ever do that to me again!" She yanked Elyza into her arms.

"I'm sorry," Elyza wheezed, "You're crushing me."

"You deserve it! You scared the fuck out of me." Raven smacked Elyza's arm and put her head on Elyza's shoulder to catch her breath, "Fuck man…"

"I noticed." Elyza couldn't help but chuckle, as soon as she'd left the safety of the lounge she realized how terrifying the abandoned hallways were without Raven cracking wise. Then she thought about the presence of a stranger, either infected or not and Elyza decided to wait for Raven to catch up. Just in time for her friend's terrified yelling to bounce around the walls of the place in a dizzying cacophony. "You did your fair share of terrifying me too." She bumped Raven's shoulder, "I vote we find someplace that doesn't sound like a haunted mansion."

"I second that." Raven grouched, "Now let's find whoever is running around this empty hellhole so we can leave."

Elyza nodded and turned around, "On the bright side, they know exactly where we are?"

Raven winced, "We might need to work on that stealth bit. Come on, they're probably close to the door right?"

"Probably." Elyza sounded about as sure as Raven did. Together they walked back to the main doors of the school, listening for something other than the sound of their own footsteps in the cavernous building.

"Have I mentioned that this place is really creepy?" Elyza whispered.

The sound of a gun cocking shattered the silence and caused both girls to spin around with wide eyes. A black woman with a shotgun was glaring at the girls, "Hands where I can see them."

The girls put their hands up as soon as they processed the words. "I would offer to shake your hand but yours look full." Raven quipped weakly, "Mind pointing the business end of that thing elsewhere? I like the current shape of my face."

The woman snorted, "Either of you bitten?"

They shook their heads, "The old broad down the street tried on my friend, turns out backpacks are more than just a fashion choice."

"You're lucky." She lifted the barrel of her gun, "You two have any weapons? Something to protect yourselves?"

"Uhh," Elyza looked to Raven and she shrugged, "It wasn't exactly a priority when we were jumping out the window of our appointment."

"You'll need this." The woman pulled a wicked looking knife out of her boot and flipped it so the handle was towards Raven. Both girls looked confused and worried by the offer, "Take it."

Elyza did as she was told, holding the weapon gingerly. The only knife she had ever held was a chef's knife, this one did not feel like it was made for slicing cucumbers. "If you come across one of those things, you have to aim for the head." The woman instructed, "Go for the-"

"Temple, base of skull, ear or eye socket. My mom's a doctor, I know where the weakest parts of the skull are, but why would we kill people? They're just sick." Elyza wasn't pleased at the implication that either she or Raven would have to hurt someone, let alone an invalid.

"That old broad that tried to bite you was dead. They're all dead kid." The woman shook her head, looking around the building, "If they get the chance, they'll eat your fucking face off and then you'll do the same. You die, you start eating people. Try to remember that next time somebody's grandma tries to get you."

Elyza looked dubious so Raven took the knife. "Noted. Thanks."

The woman nodded, "You find any food in here? Or water? I'm trying to stock up."

"Teacher's lounge." Elyza gestured, "Go down that hallway, take a right and the third left. It takes you to the stairs. The lounge is just around the corner, door locks and the machines are already open. There's sodas and snacks."

"Thanks kid." The woman cracked a smile, "Be careful out there."

"You too." Elyza waved at the woman's retreating back.


	6. Field trips, the most educational

By the time Anya had tossed together some snacks and a couple of handguns from her collection in the root cellar, Chris had gathered the rest of the children for her little outing. Madison was standing on the porch, watching them pack up so Anya made a good show of it. "Alright, get in the jeep. The fence isn't going to check itself and you need to get yourselves back here and in bed before you all turn to fucking pumpkins so move your asses."

"Yes sir!" Nick saluted and Anya's hand twitched with the urge to smack that grin off his face. She lifted her hand to him and he grinned from ear to ear, ducking into the back of the car. Alicia hip checked Chris away from the passenger seat.

"Hey!" He looked to Anya for some kind of defense.

Anya snorted, "Kid you want it, you gotta fight for it. I don't give two shits where you sit."

"But she always gets shotgun!" He protested.

"And you always let her." Anya replied, "So grow a pair, or sit your ass in the damn car."

Chris glanced up to the porch where Madison was watching with a disapproving glare at Anya and pouted his way to the back seat. "Bunch of bullshit." He muttered.

As soon as his door was shut Anya stepped on the gas, tearing across the property with a giant cloud of dust behind them. "You just have to accept the way of the world man," Nick advised, "Girls sit up front, but guys get the snacks." He smirked, lifting up Anya's pack.

"Dude!" Chris high-fived Nick and pulled a protein bar out of the bag and started chowing down.

"Whoa…" Nick pulled a gun out of the backpack, "What are we doing out here?" He looked up at Anya.

"Checking the legitimacy of the mom squads claims, and working on your aim. If we have a bunch of crazy cannibals out here, then you're going to need to know how to shoot a gun."

"We've gone shooting before." Chris rolled his eyes, "You know we can hit a target."

Anya's grip tightened on the wheel, "But can you hit a person?" She glanced over her shoulder at him, "It's a hell of a lot different than shooting a rabbit or a coyote kid, even more so when they want to kill you too."

Her words were met with silence as the kids remembered that they weren't just on a visit to their aunt's house. That this was not Auntie Anya the crankpot who kept Mr. Pickles The Fish alive just because she knew it was important to the kiddos.

This was Anya Forrester the australian commando who kept three separate gun lockers in her root cellar and bought them all knives and self-defense classes for their birthdays.

They were quiet for the next thirty minutes, listening to the rumble of the engine and the crunch of dust and gravel beneath the wheels as they bounced over the badlands.

When Anya saw the fence she stepped on the brakes and turned them slowly so they stopped thirty feet before the barbed wire. "What the fuck is that?" Anya jumped out of the car and drew her gun in one smooth motion.

She looked back to the flabbergasted kids, "What the fuck is this?"

"Well Auntie Anya, those are people and those things are cars and those other things are tents," Alicia gestured in front of her "and that is what most people call a tent city."

Anya glared at Alicia and tightened her grip on her gun. "No shit Sherlock. What the fuck are they doing here?"

"Everyone is trying to get out of the city, it was Mom and Travis' plan from the beginning. Guess everyone else thought it was a good idea too." Nick shrugged and scuffed his foot. "Can we go back? It's about time for my meds."

"You just had a dose, Nick. You are supposed to be weaning off." Alicia said, rolling her eyes at her brother.

"It's not my fault that I'm still sensitive." He grumbled, "It's too early for once a day doses."

"You had two doses today already and we need to make sure the meds last or you will have to go cold turkey on the last bit." Alicia replied

Anya raised her eyebrows, "You done whining kid? This is a serious issue we're talking about. You can handle a few hours sweating it out, what I can't handle-" She turned around to the tent city and bellowed, "IS THIS BULLSHIT RIGHT HERE! YOU FUCKING SHIPRATS!"

Chris leaned towards Alicia, "What's a shiprat? How is it different from a normal rat?"

"Does it really matter?" Alicia asked

"I dunno, she's screaming it at strangers, so maybe?"

Alicia rolled her eyes, "No, it doesn't freaking matter."

"Freaking?" Nick asked

"All right, fuck this shit." Anya threw herself back into the jeep and put it into gear, ripping down the rough track alongside the fence. "Come on, there has to be an end to this somewhere!" Anya hit the steering wheel, "Did all of California move out here last night?" She was starting to get antsy, starting to feel trapped by the ocean of people that stopped right at the edge of her fence. How long until they needed more space and decided to move their invading asses onto her property? And how the fuck were they going to have enough water. That was going to be a problem first.

"Anya?" Alicia put a hand on her aunt's arm, "Are you okay?"

"This is a problem, a fucking shitstorm" Anya shook her head "All this morons came to the desert to get away, but there are limited resources here. There's only so much food, but before that becomes a problem, water will get everyone killed. Them for lack and us for having it."

"Oh shit.." Nick's eyes were wide, he'd seen the same kind of thing all the time on the streets. Desperate junkies waiting around corners for the chance to jump someone after a meet with a dealer, people getting hurt even just for being in the area that people thought their fix would be. "This is bad."

"You're damn right it is, and there's no way we can hide it out in the city either." Anya chewed on her cheek, "There'll still be too many fuckers there too. Let's get back to the house, we've got to keep people off the land and away from us.

Anya stopped and pulled around, they still hadn't gotten to the end of the tent city but it didn't matter at this point. There were just too many people. It was time to keep themselves safe, at least long enough to figure out what the hell was happening.

"STOP!" Chris yelled, startling everyone else in the Jeep.

"What the fuck?!" Anya yelled slamming on the brakes, but it was too late. Chris had vaulted himself out of the car as soon as it slowed down. He stumbled and tripped, his body confused as he started running towards a girl laying on the ground half in the overgrown runoff ditch. "What is happening?"

"She's hurt!" Chris yelled over his shoulder as he came up on her.

"Oh god," Alicia launched herself out of the vehicle after him, at best he would need help and at worst he would need a lot of help.

"We don't help people!" Nick shouted

"What he said! We don't help people when we have no fucking clue what is going on!" Anya agreed as she ran to where Chris and Alicia were bent over the injured, and apparently crying girl.

Nick snagged the bag full of handguns and ran after them, arms and legs flailing in a display that would have caused Anya physical pain if she had been paying enough attention to notice.

"Hey, hey stop crying, it's okay." Alicia rubbed the girl's back, "Where are your parents?"

"I don't know," she cried.

"What happened?" Anya asked

"I don't know! I was walking and then my ankle hurt and now it's all swollen!" She blubbered, clinging to the woman's leg.

"Is anything else injured?" Anya asked, once she received a head shake she bent down and picked the girl up "Get away from that ditch right now. There are snakes around here and we don't need any more injuries. What's your name?"

"Tris," she sniffed

"It's nice to meet you Tris." Alicia smiled at her, "We're gonna take good care of you. I promise."

Nick came running up, "What did I miss?"

Tris saw the bag of guns in his hand and recoiled, hiding her face in Anya's shoulder, "Put those away you idiot! And don't run with guns, even if they are unloaded." She snapped.

"They aren't loaded?" Chris looked heartbroken.

"Of course they aren't loaded. One of you would shoot someone in the ass. My ass looks great as it is, it would not be improved by a bullet." Anya snarked.

Chris grimaced at the mental image and shook his head. Alicia brushed past him to open the door for Anya. "She can have my seat."

"Yeah, of course you'll give up shotgun for her." Chris grouched

"Dude." Nick smacked his arm, "She's hurt. You go get bit by a snake and then you can have shotgun. Snake bites always supercede gender roles."

"Oh my god, you're both idiots." Alicia was starting to get a twitch from all the eye rolling, it felt like any time someone opened their mouth she had to roll her eyes at the nonsense pouring out of them. Some things never changed.

They rolled up to the shack with Madison right where they left her except for the cup of tea steaming by her hand. Anya looked twice as pissed, and didn't bother explaining when she carried in a sniffling child that clung to her in a way that Travis couldn't wrap his head around. Anya was not a maternal woman, or even a family woman as far as he could tell, but he recognized the look on her face as one that Madison had worn on many occasions. Usually when Nick was involved.

"Alicia what happened?" Madison turned to her daughter for information while Travis tried to interrogate Anya.

"Who is this? What happened to her? Is she sick? Anya what's going on? Why didn't you call us for help." Travis hovered over his half-sister with all the intensity of a mother hen and Anya was getting sick of his clucking.

"She's a kid, don't know, don't care, figure it out and because you don't know when to fucking shut up Travis." Anya snarled, "So get the fuck out of my face."

He put his hands up and backed up a little bit, his face scrunched up in concern. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Go see if emergency services is working yet. Nick, go downstairs and get the big first aid kit, it looks like a big tool box." Anya directed while placing Tris on the sofa

"I'll get some water and blankets." Madison turned to the little girl, "Are you hungry, have you eaten yet?"

Tris nodded to Madison's question and Alicia crouched by Tris' head, stroking her hair out of her face, "See? You're gonna be just fine. My aunt Anya is the best right?"

"She's not even really your aunt, Alicia." Chris commented.

"Shut the fuck up Chris." Alicia slapped her leg, "I'm so fucking done with your bullshit!"

"Alicia! Language." Madison snapped.

"Don't talk to Chris like that." Travis said in the same moment.

"How about you all shut up?" Anya suggested, pissed off that the sudden tension in the room was freaking Tris out. If the girl's heart rate kicked up at all, it would only help the venom kill her faster.

Liza and Nick walked in toting the heavy first aid kit and dropped it next to Anya with a thud. "Hey there honey," Liza smiled, "We're gonna get you fixed right up okay? I'm Liza."

Tris offered her a weak smile and Liza looked up at Travis, "Would you mind clearing the room? We want her to be comfortable, being on display like this can't be helping her stay calm."

"Uhm, sure. Let's move out to the deck. And Anya, emergency services is still down. Not even a message on when they'll be back up again." Travis said as he herded people to the door.

Anya grunted, focused on the dark bruising around Tris' ankle. She wanted it covered up before the girl could see the swelling and blackened skin. "We need a marker and a compression bandage." She muttered, turning to dig through the first aid kit, but Liza already had the supplies in hand. "Thanks." Together the women marked the circumference of the swelling and wrapped Tris' leg up to her mid thigh while Alicia held the girl's hand.

"Get her some water." Anya ordered Alicia and took her place by Tris' head. "Tell me about yourself kid."

"Um, I'm 10 and I go to Washington Elementary school. And I have a dog named Nero and I play soccer." Tris said, wincing as her leg was wrapped

Anya nodded, trying to find a connection to the kid. "Huh, well we don't have a dog, but we have a fucking fish in the bathroom, you like fish kid?"

"Anya, why are you so foul-mouthed? She's just a kid and you shouldn't use language like that around her. Or around Chris either." Liza scolded

"I dunno, why are you such a fucking sneaky bitch? I swear you just show up and then disappear. You sure you aren't a ghost or some shit?" Anya narrowed her eyes at Liza.

Alicia and Tris looked at each and snickered into their shoulders.

"I am not a ghost or something." Liza rolled her eyes, checking the tightness of the wrap, "I just don't feel the need to be in everyone's face about being here." She shot a look at the front door, "I'm grateful to have a place to stay, so I keep out of your way."

"Well." Anya blinked, "That's almost thoughtful."


	7. Car Batteries, Who knew?

Raven stopped dead in her tracks, "Oh my god, it's the Wong Fook Hing book store, Elyza we have to go in."

"Shh!" Elyza smacked Raven's arm and looked over her shoulder at the trio of people grumbling to themselves across the street. She wasn't sold on the woman's story that all people were dangerous, but she wasn't going to take her chances helping them either.

Raven ducked into the cozy room with a massive grin, "Dude, this is it! This is our new home."

"Are you serious?" Elyza shook her head, "Any reason besides the name?" She gave the security bars across the windows a shake. They were practically worthless. Elyza had a baby gate that was sturdier than this useless piece of decorative scrap.

"I don't need one, but those bookcases would make a mighty fine barricade don't you think?" Raven waggled her eyebrows, pointing to the rows of shelves sitting on the back half of the store. The front half was a little java cafe with tables and wire wrought chairs. The nice kind that made your back sore after a few hours instead of minutes.

"Maybe, but are you going to accept anything other than a yes no matter what I say?" Elyza asked, moving towards the door

"I have no idea how to answer that but we are staying." Raven put her hands on her hips and looked around with pride in their new home, "I don't even need to come up with a name for this baby."

"Well help me get into the store and we can see what you've decided we are going to deal with. Maybe we will get lucky and there will be some food, or water. Probably too much to ask for a shower." Elyza tugged on the door handle.

"Babe please." Raven booty-bumped Elyza out of the way and pulled out her trusty screwdriver, "Time to work some magic." She had the door open with minimal damage in thirty seconds.

"Yeah well if you were really magic you'd get me a cheeseburger and a milkshake. Now put your wand away and let's check this place out already. Those people are creepy." Elyza pushed at Raven's arm trying to get her to move into the store.

"You're just jealous that my wand is bigger." Raven tucked it into her pants with a smirk and sauntered into the store.

"I'd suggest that size doesn't matter, only how you use it, but I don't think that'd work too well for me." Elyza rolled her eyes.

"Sorry cutie, you're not my type." Raven ducked under the counter, "You're like a sister to me and incest just isn't my thing."

"Well thank fuck for that." Elyza started walking towards the back of the store, checking out the bookcases. "Hey there's another door back here, but it doesn't seem to open. So much for a fire escape."

"Maybe it goes to an upstairs apartment or something?" Raven's voice was muffled behind the counter, she was crouched low and digging around for anything interesting.

"I don't know, but we aren't getting through that, it doesn't even budge." Elyza came out from the stacks, "I'm going to check out the loft and see what's up there."

"Scream if someone tries to eat you." Raven snickered.

"I usually do." Elyza smirked

"That's my girl." Raven's head popped up, "Wait what?"

Elyza walked up the stairs laughing at Raven's face.

"Shut the fuck up!" Raven yelled, "Or I won't give you any of the goodies I find."

"Not my fault you're clueless. Also there are some sofa's up here. They'll be a lot more comfortable than the floor of the teacher's lounge was. And I will cut you if you don't share food." Elyza called over the edge of the railing.

"Oh my god, who is your most favoritest bitch in the world?" Raven called up, her grin obvious in her tone.

"Me." Elyza responded, "But you're a close second, what'd you find?"

"Well fuck you too. I'm keeping it." Raven snarked, "No grilled cheese for you!"

"No the fuck way! If you don't share I will shave your head while you sleep!" Elyza came running down the stairs.

"Who says I'm sleeping in the same place as you? This is my kingdom now bitch and I am queen of the cheese."

"Weren't we talking just a few days ago about how you burn everything? Hope you enjoy those carbon bricks." Elyza taunted. "And don't forget to make it to the toilet when you've poisoned yourself."

Raven had no retort to that, she'd spent one too many nights puking up the messes she'd tried to disguise under ketchup and any other condiment she could scrounge up. "I take it back, you are the biggest bitch."

"Damn right, now show me the goods and we'll be eating like queens." Elyza ducked under the counter and joined Raven. "Once we've eaten we should probably do something to make this place a little safer. It took no time to get in here and those bars are useless."

"I'll just put you in front, your tongue should be sharp enough to deal with anyone that tries to walk in." Raven snarked, "Besides we need to scavenge one of the car batteries out there before we start the lockdown. I can't get this press working without a little juice." She put the panini press she found onto the counter.

"Ooook. I'll let you get right on that and assume it's possible." Elyza raised her eyebrow skeptically. "And I'd probably just need to be quiet and they'll follow the sound of your voice and then you can deal with them."

"It's a good thing I like you Lex." Raven muttered, "There's cheese and bread in that mini fridge," She pointed, "It's the good shit too."

"Rae, you think anything that isn't velveeta is the good shit." Elyza ducked down to look into the fridge.

Raven narrowed her eyes, "That's because Velveeta is scraped out of Lucifer's armpit and served on a nice ass flavored platter."

'Wow, ok, them's some strong feelings on velveeta you have there." Elyza pulled out the cheese and mayo packets. "And this is not the good shit, this is the tolerable shit."

"It's not wonderbread and plastic so I'm going to call it the good shit and move on." Raven rolled her eyes and walked out of the java shop with a dark look, "Thanks Raven for finding dinner, it might be the last time we ever have cheese again and I'm really grateful, no honestly, you're the best." She muttered to herself, popping the hood on the nearest car to start the process of removing the battery.

Raven came back in toting the battery, still muttering to herself as she dug her emergency kit out of her bag and went ham on the thing. By the time she was done it was a mess of wires and looked ready to catch on fire at any moment, but Raven seemed impressed with herself. "Done."

"We've only got cold water, but I got the coffee pot cleaned out so if you get that set-up too, we can have coffee in the morning." Elyza started placing sandwiches on the warming press. "And maybe you should go find the fire extinguisher, just in case that thing explodes."

Raven wasn't there to whine at Elyza's lack of faith in her. As soon as there was mention of coffee, any kind of coffee, Raven was out the door in search of another battery. She would have her cake and damn well drink it too. Metaphorically speaking.

"I've got grilled cheese sandwiches, pickles and I found a package of cookies. They probably aren't great, but it's still chocolate." Elyza help up the package.

"Perfect, I've got the coffee machine ready to go for the morning, and I think if we break down some of those chairs we can make some decent spear things." Raven nodded to herself, looking like she was already working on ways to turn the shop into a death trap.

"I was just thinking we don't want someone to come in and surprise us. What the fuck do we need spears for?" Elyza asked looking confused.

"Dude we have grilled cheese sandwiches. I would stab a bitch for that. Let alone the privilege of walking into the Wong Fook Hing book store to pick a fight. Life doesn't get better than that babe, we have to protect our considerable assets."

"Rae, Love. You don't have considerable assets."

"You have enough for both of us." Raven teased, snagging a sandwich for herself.

"Hell I know. I was hoping the lack of food would help with that." Elyza turned to check out her ass, "Sadly it's still there."

"Some of us are just cursed with more boobs than brains I'm afraid." Raven lamented, trying to restrain her grin.

"And some of us are fantastic enough to have both, thank you ever so fucking much." Elyza smacked Raven's arm. "But seriously, spears?"

Raven chewed thoughtfully, "I dunno, it just feels right. Like…" She tried to quantify the feelings that had been rising ever since that old lady had tried to take a chunk out of Eliza, "It doesn't feel like everything is just going to go back to normal. I want," She scuffed her foot on the floor, "I want to sleep and not be afraid to wake up?"

"Do you think that lady was right? That people are dangerous?" Elyza asked, her expression just a bit sad and a lot serious. "Mom said this is serious, but that lady made it sound almost like the world is ending."

"I mean… We just broke into someone's store and started mutilating their appliances. I stole car batteries? Shit is definitely weird. You would never have let me do something like that without at least three fire extinguishers within arm's reach and now you're asking me to do it to the coffee maker too?" Raven pointed out, trying to skirt around the violence with which that man had smashed grandma's head into the asphalt.

There was a reason she covered Elyza's eyes. She could barely think about it herself, but it was always in the back of her head, and if she was being honest, it was the biggest reason she wanted spears. She didn't want to become that person herself, not if she could avoid it.

"I…" Elyza started, "I think things are going to get worse before they get better." Elyza paused again, blinking watery eyes "If they ever get better. I don't think things are ever going to be the same again Raven. I'm a little bit scared about what we are going to have to do."

Raven hooked her arm around Elyza, "Hey, none of that worry shit. If anyone even looks at you wrong I'll strap a grenade to their dick, remember? That's how it's always been and that's how it stays. Spears means people are too scared to try and take our shit. Fear is for the uninitiated." Raven grinned from ear to ear, shoving her own worries deep down.

Elyza nodded her head. She had known Raven too long to fail to see her worry in her eyes, but she could definitely follow her example. "Ok, then let's barricade ourselves in here with the bookcases, load them up so we are protected and then you can show me how to make a spear out of a chair."

"It's like you read my mind." Raven shoved the rest of her sandwich into her mouth and grinned around it, "Kom wif ee."

"God you are disgusting." Elyza grimaced, "I happen to know that Grandma Reyes would smack the back of your head if she saw you do that. Ew."

"Gamma ez izn ear." Raven said around her food, strolling into the back of the shop with one hand out, casually knocking all the books on the shelves to the floor.

After thoroughly reprimanding Raven for her incessant need to destroy everything, Elyza helped Raven move the bookcases from the downstairs cubby, layering them three deep in front of the windows and loading them up with books again. It had taken the rest of the day so Raven had suggested scooting the last case over a few feet to cover the door as well and call it a night.


	8. Its my Damn Boat

"Hey kid, how you feeling?" Anya asked softly as she checked on Tris. It was still early, the sun wasn't even up yet, but Anya was used to early hours and didn't see the point in laying in bed just because she had visitors.

"My leg hurts and I'm cold" Tris whispered, shifting down under the blankets a bit more.

Anya walked over to the chest that served as a coffee table and pulled out another blanket, laying over the ones already covering the little girl. "This should help you get warmed up. I'm going to unwrap your leg where the bite was ok?" Tris nodded and Anya turned on a dim lamp in the corner before unwrapping her leg a bit. "Well it doesn't look great, but it doesn't look any worse, so that's something. Do you need anything?"

"No, I just want to go back to sleep." Tris mumbled, almost back to sleep already.

Anya rose and grabbed clothes out of the dryer before heading into the bathroom to change. It was just a few minutes later that she put a cup of water of the coffee table for Tris before nudging Liza awake.

"I'm going out for a run, I checked on Tris already and she seems to be hanging in there, but keep an eye on her. I'll be back in an hour." Anya didn't bother waiting for acknowledgment before she headed through the front door and began her normal route.

The sky was getting brighter quickly, illuminating the path in front of her as Anya began to hit her stride. This run was usually the most peaceful part of her day, no people and no bullshit, but today there was an added heaviness to it. Despite the fact that she knew this path well enough to run it in the dark, today there was an unknown element. That tent city had sprung up within 24 hours and there was no telling what had become of it, or what damage had been done to her property. Yes there were fences and the like, but most people assumed the desert was empty and that the land belonged to no one. It wouldn't be a stretch to find people squatting on her land. Or even worse, to find people hunting for water on her land. As far as she knew, Anya had the only well within 20 miles, and while it was enough to sustain her it wouldn't even sustain all of her guests for too long. The damn drought affected more than just commercial growers and green yards, everyone always seemed to forget that.

She could hear the distant sounds of people carried on the wind and a wariness she rarely felt at home seeped into Anya's bones. Her eyes scanned the horizon and then swept the region in front of her at a mile, half a mile and a hundred yards, over and over she followed the pattern trained into her by a thousand watches over her fellow soldiers. The missing weight of her sidearm felt like a slap to the face for being so careless.

Anya picked up the pace, trying to find her zen. There was too much going on and she was starting to miss things. Leaving the house without her fucking sidearm was the height of stupidity with all this shit going on. Whatever the fuck was actually going on. Indra was not prone to exaggeration, hell Anya had seen maybe one obvious emotion in the last 5 years of working with the Colonel. Since it was Colonel Pines she was to be believed without hesitation and that meant that Anya should be on high alert. Instead she was distracted by a house full of her useless family, a girl with a rattlesnake bite, and a tent city.

Anya began strategizing as she continued her run. It was a great time to make plans without distractions. First thing was to arm herself, and probably the kids too. Travis would be worthless with a gun, he could shoot but he'd just whine about it. Madison and Liza might know how to shoot, but she wasn't going to trust that without proof and refresher course. Better to just give them a knife and not risk a bullet to the ass, but the kids had been shooting with Anya for a few years. It had started when Travis had first introduced Madison, Alicia and Nick. Nick had been a hot mess fresh out of a rehab, Alicia had barely said two words the first day and Chris had not stopped whining about something or other the whole fucking weekend. Fed up, Anya had dragged them to a fair without Travis and Madison, which had resulted in the fucking fish taking up residence with her and lessons on how to handle guns. The couple had both been pissed about it, but Anya couldn't care less. This was America and everyone should know how to handle a firearm since they were so easy to access.

Once everyone was armed, securing the well should be the next step. She had exterior access for testing and cleaning the well and shit so she should make...

"What the fuck?" Anya's line of thought was interrupted as she spotted someone on the road up ahead. Anya slowed and came to a halt, squatting down as she watched what looked like a guy stumbling on the road up ahead. That wasn't the issue, the issue was that his neck was not at a normal angle. His ear was resting easily on his shoulder and the bones in his neck were oddly bunched and he didn't seem bothered by it at all. She was pretty sure that he should be dead, yet here he was up and moving. His gait was weird and she continued to observe how he moved, slow and stumbling but not phased by tripping or something in his path. He just kept moving, seemingly without aim. He was also making guttural noises without stopping. It was disturbing to hear the constant nonsensical noises, reminiscent of someone dying in extreme pain. As she continued to watch, Anya became aware of another noise, faint due to the distance and the noise of the ambling man.

It took a moment to figure out what it was and she identified it as a rattlesnake just moments before she saw the snake spring and bit the man she had been watching. Anya began to rise in concern but quickly sank back down into a crouch as the man failed to react at all to the strike.

Her concern quickly turned to disbelief as the man began to reach for the snake that had just bit him.

The snake sprang at him again and he tried to catch the damn thing! She continued to watch as the man caught the snake clumsily on its third strike, her eyes widening as he opened his mouth and bit down on the snake that was still attempting to strike at him.

No fucking way. It was time to get the fuck out of here.

Anya slowly backed away from where she had ducked in the scrub before turning around and began back to the house, taking the shorted path and increasing her speed to get back faster. She made it back to the house in record time with a stitch in her side. Anya climbed back up the porch fighting to get air into her lungs.

Anya had met a lot of badasses in her day, but not one of them would have taken a rattlesnake bite to the eye without flinching. Let alone have the balls to bite back. "Anya are you okay?" Travis offered her a hand, "Did something happen?"

Anya brushed his hand away, "I'm good. Has breakfast been made yet?"

"Madison and Alicia are working on it now, I think the eggs are done, if you want something?"

"I'll be back in a few, I need a shower. Has Tris drunk that water yet?" Anya moved into the house.

"I uh, I don't know, I'll check with Liza." He looked over his shoulder for Liza, then back to Anya, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Just need a shower." Anya walked towards the bathroom, "I'll be back in 20, make sure Tris drinks that water, and I'll check on her leg again when I'm out, the bandage needs to be changed."

Travis stepped out of the way for Anya, deciding he was lucky she hadn't bitten him yet and went to help the girls in the kitchen. Anya ducked into the bathroom and with a click the door was locked.

She slid to the floor, elbows on her knees and hands on her head. That guy had a broken neck, she'd seen it once before when one of her SO's got into a wreck, nearly ripped his head off. He didn't get up from that, but this guy, this snake-eating tourist with the broken neck was just waltzing around on her property and holy shit. Indra was not lying? "What the fuck is going on?" She mumbled.

Anya's mind was doing a full-on death spiral, but she began going through the motions of a shower. Hot water, shampoo, soap all the normal things. All things that could not distract her from the fact that things were very much not normal and for the first time in years, Anya did not know how the fuck to deal.

When her twenty was up, and she turned off the water, her body on auto-pilot, Anya decided that dealing was overrated. Dealing could wait until they had a game plan. Until then, she would sit up, shut down and get shit done.

"After breakfast I want to run everyone through the guns. I don't want any stupid accidents. We won't do target practice, there's too many people out there, but everyone needs to know their way around the guns and everyone needs to be armed, even if it's just a seal pup."

Chris raised his hand, "What is a seal pup and why are we using them as weapons?"

"Its a knife and we use them because they are sharp and pointy."Anya snarked at Chris as she sat at the table and began filling her plate with food. "After we run through the weapons, I want the boys to help me secure the well and the house."

"Jeez, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed." Chris muttered

"That's enough Christopher, your aunt is trying to help." Liza chided before looking up at Anya with raised eyebrows, "And you, we already have a little girl with an injured leg, do you really want to put someone else on that list? Guns?"

"Let me rephrase that for Liza," Madison snapped, "Guns?! They're kids! I don't know what's wrong with you, but there is no way you are giving my children guns."

The kids all looked at each and shrugged "Anya's been teaching us how to use guns since the first time we met her. I don't think I've ever been here more than a day or two and not done target practice." Alicia said "I'm a better shot than Chris and Nick, not that that's a surprise."

"Hey! I'd be an amazing shot if I wasn't always shaky" Nick retorted

"You're always shaky because of the drugs you moron." Chris shoveled food in his mouth, barely taking the time to chew.

"I don't care what you've been doing behind our backs." Madison snapped, "You aren't getting guns. None of you are old enough to understand what it means to use one, and I'm not going to let you hurt yourselves."

"First of all, not only are they old enough to understand what it means to use one for self-defense, they are also old enough to die if someone decides that we have something that they want, like water." Anya glared at the adults around the table. "Second of all, my house, my fucking rules. You want to be here, then you will not only learn how to use the weapons I have available you will also be armed and able to protect yourself."

"Then we'll leave." Madison stood up from the table.

"Madi-" Travis grabbed her elbow, "Think about what you're saying."

"I am Travis. Kids pack your things, we're leaving."

Nick huffed, "And where are we going to go huh? Back to LA?"

"Anywhere but here." Madison snapped.

"No." Alicia glared at her mother, "We came here for a reason. To be safe, that's what you said. Did you think we were going to hide in the basement or something? Mrs. Tran tried to attack me, and Mr. Dawson attacked the Cruz's and killed their dog! Mom if we want to be safe we have to be willing to fight for ourselves. That starts here. With the weapons that Anya is giving us."

"I'm more than willing to do what it takes to protect us, Alicia, but you are children. You are not responsible for our safety. We are your parents and we will take care of you." Madison responded.

"Oh you're going to protect us now?" Alicia laughed, "Like you took care of us when dad died?" As soon as the words passed her lips, she regretted it, but she stood by it. "You haven't taken care of me in years, you've been too busy pretending that everything is okay. And Nick has been on his own even longer!" She pointed at her brother, "You need to wake up mom. This is the first time you've been there for us in a long time."

"Alright, enough!" Anya stood from the table. "If anyone doesn't like the idea of weapons, they are welcome to leave, but no one is forcing anyone else to leave. If the kids are willing to protect themselves then I won't let you force them to leave."

Madison looked between her two kids. Alicia was defiant, if a little guilty for the things she'd said, and Nick had his arms folded and his head down. It was a pose she knew well from her visits to his rehab. If she wanted to be there for her kids, she would have to let this one go. "I guess I have no choice." She mumbled, sitting back down.

Travis and Liza looked away from a muted conversation they had also been having and both nodded their agreement. They would stay as well. "Guess that's settled then. Finish eating and clean up, I'll take care of Tris then we get to work."

Anya walked to the sofa where Tris was still asleep with a bit of concern. They hadn't exactly been quiet during their breakfast discussion and it really should have woken the girl. She also hadn't drunk the water that Anya had left beside her, fucking Travis. "Tris, wake up sweetie." Anya shook Tris' shoulder trying to get her to wake up.

The girl's small face pinched in pain and she twisted on the couch, trying to get comfortable again, eyes clamped shut.

"Come on Tris, I really need you to wake up. You need to drink some water and I've got food for you." Anya shook her shoulder again

"I'm not hungry." Tris popped one eye open and grimaced at the light, "I'm sleepy and my leg hurts."

"You can sleep again after you've eaten, but you won't get better if you don't have any energy." Anya scolded softly, still trying to be gentle

Tris opened the other eye and stuck her lip out into a pout, "Do I have to eat? My tummy aches."

Anya's face and voice hardened "Yes, you do have to eat."

She looked down at the floor and nodded, "Can you bring it to me?"

"It's right here for you." Anya held up the plate and waited for Tris to reposition herself on the sofa. The girl did as she was told, scooting up just enough to put the plate on her lap and ate slowly. "Do you need to use the bathroom?"

Tris shook her head as she continued to eat slowly. "You let me or Liza know if you do okay?" Anya lifted Tris' chin just long enough to ensure the girl heard and would say something. "Good, I'll be back in a few hours, rest up kid." Anya mussed Tris' hair with a small smile. Tris returned it shyly and ate with a little more enthusiasm.

Anya went out the front door and around to the basement, it was time to start pulling resources up to the main house. It was the only downside of her home, no internal access to the basement. Anya started unloading the contents of the basement, everyone else could move it from the top of the stairs into the house.

"Start stacking stuff in the dining room, we can eat on the floor as long as we need to." Anya told Travis as he came down the stairs. "I wasn't planning on having so many people around in case of emergency so we will need to be careful and make do with what we've got."

He nodded, "Got it, I'll get the boys to help too." He offered her a hesitant smile, "Thank you again for taking us in."

Anya rolled her eyes "Grandmother would roll over in her grave if I didn't."

"I-" He balked a little at the realization that that was the only reason, "W-well thanks. I don't think I could have kept them safe on my own."

Anya didn't say anything but she agreed. Travis was not good at doing hard things. If he could find a way to avoid doing something he didn't want to do, he would let the earth burn to avoid it. It was not a good habit at any point in time, but especially not after what she had seen this morning.

With help from the boys, Anya managed to unpack all the essentials from the cellar, leaving behind a few of the larger add-ons for the Jeep and the gas cans for her backup generator. It only took them a few hours, but that was enough.

"Anya get up here!" Liza called from the house.


	9. Making the world a better place

"Okay, so once you file down the ends here, you have yourself a nice spike, see?" Raven held up her wrought iron fork for Elyza to examine. Honestly it just looked like she broke the back off one of the chairs and filed down the pieces that had been socketed in the wood. Not difficult, but very time consuming.

"Remind me why we can't just leave the bookcase in front of the door again?"

Raven rolled her eyes, "It's an escape route, we need to have it secure just in case the alley behind the shop isn't safe."

"Safe from what? Sick people?" Elyza tossed her file aside, frustrated by the rampant paranoia surrounding those who had been infected. Maybe they were more aggressive, but she wouldn't just walk around killing people just because they caught the bug.

"Safe from cannibals." Raven raised a finger, "And safe from people like us who like to make spikes out of chairs." She raised her second finger, "And finally, people are just generally bad to keep around, they eat all your food and make you share the couch which I for one am not going to do. So safe is just a general term for no one else is going to touch our stuff."

"Well speaking of stuff, we need food. The cheese and bread is almost gone." Elyza continued moving the broken remains of chairs out of the way. "On the upside though, we have enough coffee to last us a year."

"Thank fuck. I can live on coffee alone as long as necessary." Raven set the homemade spear down. "And there was a grocery store on the corner, we can check in there and see what they have."

"Ok. I'll go empty out the backpack, we can just load that up and then I'll be ready to go." Elyza started up the stairs to the loft.

Raven stood up and started getting her brace adjusted. She had loosened it shortly after they got started filing the chair spears down, needing it to be a bit more comfortable, but it didn't do any good when it was loose and she really couldn't walk much without it. She picked up the spears and and handed one of them to Elyza, who had come down with them empty backpack slung across her shoulder.

"Why are we taking the spears?" Elyza asked

"Because it'll really fucking suck if we need them and don't have them. If we don't need them and have them, then no harm done." Raven answered as she looked out the front window to see if anyone was watching. Finding no one she pulled open the door and waited for Elyza to exit before using the key she had found in the office/cleaning closet to lock the door. She gave the door a little shove and turned around, satisfied that it was properly locked.

The girls moved down the street away from their bookstore looking around. The street was dead quiet, which was odd. There were no cars driving down the street, no people walking down the sidewalk (other than them), there wasn't even any ambient noise from too loud Tv's and radios. All of the store fronts that they walked past looked deserted, although they weren't obviously closed. There were no bars pulled over doors, no 'Sorry, We're Closed' signs showing, some of the stores still had their outside display out. But despite those signs of normal business, every store they passed gave off the same erie feeling as a ghost town.

"Ok this is too fucking creepy" Raven said, her voice seeming even louder than usual in the odd silence. "This is California, nothing is ever this quiet. Ever."

"I think I've been in cemeteries that were noisier than this street is" Elyza agreed.

"Especially if we were there!" Raven laughed. "But seriously, lets move a little faster. I want to get back to the store."

"You sure your leg can handle faster?" Elyza asked getting a glare from Raven in return. "Alright, alright. You'll tell me if we need to slow down and you'll do it before the pain gets too bad." Elyza gave Raven a commanding look. "We don't have access to an ER or pain meds if you overdo it and your back or legs spasm."

"I'll let you know, Mom." Raven rolled her eyes

"Hey," Elyza bumped Raven's shoulder, "You're important, I couldn't do this without you."

"You bet your ass you can't." Raven smirked.

"Then take care of yourself." Elyza flicked Raven's head, "So I don't have to."

"Abuse!" Raven called out, laughing as Elyza tried to take another swipe at her. To their right someone took a deep breath that seemed to rattle in their lungs and exhaled a low growl. "Oh fuck.." Raven stumbled back a step.

Elyza caught her, taking a step back herself. "I-It's fine. Look, he's trapped." She pointed to the thick rope tied around his waist, holding him back from them. "He can't get to us Raven." Elyza promised, her grip a little too tight on Raven's arms, but neither girl was confident enough to comment on it.

"Right." Raven nodded, pointing her spear at the man, "You heard the lady, fuck off and find somebody else to munch on." He snapped his jaws at her, straining against the rope and Raven stuck her tongue out at him.

Elyza tugged her arm, "Okay, enough playing with the other kids. Let's get what we came for and go Rae."

"Yeah." Raven shrugged, "You're lucky Elyza's scared you little shit. I'll kick your ass if I see you again."

"Yeah I'm totally the one shaking in my boots." Elyza rolled her eyes. "Is this the place you were talking about?"

"Yeah this is the one." Raven kicked a rock at the guy who was tied up and turned back around to the store and dragged the door open with a cringe inducing screech of metal on concrete.

"Rae, no one is in here." Elyze said looking at the vacant checkout counter.

"After that noise can you blame them? I kinda want to rip my own ears off." She gestured for Elyza to go in first. "Move it. I'm not waiting for someone to come back just so I can eat lunch."

"Rae, I can't swipe my damn card! How are we going to pay for lunch?" Elyza moved into the store slowly.

Raven rolled her eyes, "I have some cash from my last rent check, I figured hell the world is ending, not like anyone's going to bother evicting me over a late letter." She shrugged it off before Elyza could even start getting mad about such irresponsibility, "We can just leave it on the till."

"Ugh, fine. I'm still not sure that's ok, but whatever." Elyza grabbed a basket and started through the aisles.

"We can write a firmly worded letter about their consistency during societal collapse later honey." Raven patted her shoulder.

Elyza laughed, shaking her head. "Ok, I can see your point. But there's no need to be a snarky bitch about it."

"Girl, when have I ever been anything else?" Raven raised her eyebrow and tossed two packs of oreos into the cart. "Come on, it's grocery time and I am starving."

"Should we maybe get real food and not junk shit with our limited resources?" Elyza scolded Raven.

"You mean _my_ limited resources? Yeah we're getting junk shit. You can keep your nasty ass vegetables."

"Well the next time I make grilled cheese sandwiches you can sit in the corner with your junk food and watch me eat it." Elyza replied adding cans of soup to the basket.

"Maybe I was going to be nice and leave a pack for the guy outside and share with you." Raven stuck her tongue out, "You'll never know now will you."

"You?! Share oreos?! When did hell freeze over?" Elyza laughed

"About the same time you became a total bitch." Raven grouched, tossing a bagged salad that only looked a little iffy into the cart with a dirty look.

"Oh honey, I've been a bitch since the day I learned to talk so that isn't really a thing." Elyza gave her a look "And if you think salad is the only vegetable we are getting you'll need to get your head checked."

"And who's gonna check it hmmn? I don't think all the car batteries in the world are going to help a dead MRI figure out my genius brain." Raven dug through some of the lower shelves and emerged victorious with a heavily battered box of ramen. "VICTORY!"

"And here I thought you were a genius." Elyza snarked, "Hospitals have backup generators you dofus. The MRI's aren't dead."

"Ahh, but they also have all the good drugs." Raven tapped her nose, "I bet all the junkies in LA, and that's a hell of a lot, went right for the hospitals and are waging wars over who gets the first taste of those yummy narcotics."

"Have you ever tried to break into those medicine lockers?" ELyza asked, "On second thought don't answer that, but they are almost impossible to get into if you don't know what you are doing and no way in hell can you get into them if you are high or dropping."

"Like I said, all the junkies are fighting over who gets the first taste. I bet that's where all those nutters are." Raven spread her arms and looked around, "Cus I'm not seeing anyone here, and even in the burbs we are a crowded ass city Elyza. They have to be somewhere."

"Maybe they are all off at burning man?" Elyza suggested, "I'd be good with that."

"All of fucking LA?" Raven rolled her eyes, "Oh my god at least with Finn you knew something was going on. Wake up and taste the napalm honey, Mr. Rope over there is the only fucking person we've seen since the goddamn african commando gave us a knife and sent us on our merry way, and we are here squabbling over how we are going to pay for the fucking groceries!" She kicked a box of crackers and sent it flying down the aisle, spraying crumbs everywhere.

"It's not like I don't know that something is going on Raven, but I also don't know that I can believe that this is reality and not some post-junk food gorge and halloween movie induced nightmare. Because I've got a thought or two about this and it shouldn't be happening outside of a badly written fanfic." Elyza had gotten serious.

"Yeah well shitty character motivation or not, something is going on and if it's a dream we're sharing a little too much even for family." Raven muttered, "Let's get your damn vegetables and get the hell out of here."

"Already got them. I know if I don't sneak them in you will find a way to avoid getting them at all." Elyza started putting their items in shopping bags.

Raven watched Elyza pack the plastic bags and thought about how hellish it was going to be lugging them across two blocks of vaguely mangled roads and decided not to mention their empty backpacks. For Elyza's mental health, she would just go with it. Raven slapped down an approximation of how much their trip should cost and scooped up half the bags. "Ready to go shopping barbie?"

"You're just jealous of my fantastic looks." Elyza grabbed the rest of the bags and started towards the door.

Raven grinned and did her best impersonation of Barbie's voice, "But Elyza, how could I be jealous of someone so magical and fantastical as you?" She had endured endless hours of those damn movies for Elyza's sake, and she made sure to bring it up every chance she got. "You're my best friend!"

"And I endured fucking endless hours of fucking transformers and fucking Tron. There's literally nothing interesting about them. Never has been, never will be. I thought my eyes would start to bleed last time you turned one of them on!" Elyza groaned

"I don't know, fucking transformers sounds like one hell of a feat of organic machinery." She snorted, "At least they kicked ass instead of riding retarded dragons."

Elyza was cracking up "You are such a ho. And they were horses. I only ever liked the damn barbie movies with the horses."

"Except for that one time where we had to watching motherfucking barbie rapunzel and her god damn magic paintbrush with her stupid god damn talking retarded dragon." Raven reminded her, "I watched that five times in a row for you because you were so sad about Murphy breaking your Ken doll. Then I snapped the tape in half, because I couldn't handle that kind of mental torture. You were an awful child."

"That was a library movie. It took my allowance for a month to pay for that you bitch."

"And it took my therapist years to work me through my issues with paintbrushes!"

"The only therapists you ever saw were for your leg so I don't really want to know how they were helping you with paintbrush issues. And how much further to the bookstore? These bags are cutting off my hands." Elyza complained

"I don't know Elyza, maybe if you stopped huffing and puffing you'd realize we walked all this way for the Wong Fuk Hing bookstore." Raven giggled to herself and dropped her bags to unlock the door.

"Ok, well I'm hungry so let's get in there and make food. And then we need to figure out the shower situation because your ass stinks." Elyza pushed at Raven impatiently.

"You're no basket of flowers either babe, maybe instead of worrying about how many veggies you could cram down your face you should have thought about soap." Raven lifted a bar from her bag and waved it in Elyza's face. She smirked and bumped her ass against the door, popping it open for both of them. "After you princess."

"Soap doesn't do a damn thing without water to go with it, and preferably enough water to cover said ass. That little washcloth thing is ridiculous." Elyza dumped her bags on the serving counter and ducked behind it to start organizing their items.

"And showers without running water is even worse, but at least I can poison a pond and smell better doing it. You're staring down the end of a very long pipe dream girl."

"I don't even know what you just said. Let me make you some lunch and then when your blood sugar is stable, you can start making sense again." Elyza started grabbing stuff for lunch

Raven laid her head down on the counter, "Fooooooooooood."

"You are pathetic." Elyza laughed.

"Don't forget hungry." Raven waved her hand in the air, "And a total bitch if you keep this up. You haven't seen the levels of bitchy bitchiness that could happen when this bitch gets to bitch about you being a bitch for not feeding this bitch." She made sure to point at which bitch she was referring to so that neither of them got lost in the sentence.

"Rae. Stop talking." Elyza pointed at Raven. "I don't even think you know what you are saying at this point. Go wash, and then food will be ready."

Raven whined and grabbed her pack of oreos before dragging her ass to the kitchen, eating three of them in the time it took her to get to the swinging door.

"Don't you dare eat all of those oreos Raven or I will fucking end you!" Elyza yelled.

"Fight me bitch!" She threw a small stack of them on the corner before the door shut all the way. "You'd better love me for this!"  
"Raven! Share!" Elyza grabber her oreos and hit the door open "I will not cook for you if you don't share the oreos Raven. I will literally sit there and eat whatever I make in front of you and not leave any for you!"

"There's a whole fucking pack for you! Why do you have to ruin my only joy in life?"

"Because it's fun." Elyza shrugged, "And I know you'll wake up at 3am and eat them all."

Raven didn't reply to that, but a half-empty container of oreos appeared on the counter a few minutes later and the water started running. Half an hour later she came back with wet hair and damp clothes. "We need to hit a mall pretty soon. That or start doing laundry in one of the sinks back there."

"Ick. Laundry." Elyza shuddered, almost dropping the crackers stacked on a plate beside a bowl of soup, "Anything but laundry."

"I know." Raven sat on the counter, "I think I'd rather get put in jail forever for shoplifting during a national crisis than try and do laundry by hand." She snagged a cracker from the stack and munched on it.

"I wouldn't even care if I had a washing machine. I hate doing laundry." Elyza slurped at her bowl of soup.

"Girl you don't have to tell me twice. I remember all the times Mama Lex thought about getting a maid just to clean up after your ocean of laundry." Raven crushed all of her crackers into the bowl and chugged the semi-gelatinous mess.

"That is disgusting" Elyza made a face and gagged a little. "Are you incapable of eating like a normal person?"

She glanced down at the soggy crumbs at the bottom of her bowl and up at Elyza, "Dude, that is the only way to eat soup. You're missing out on god's greatest gift to mankind."

"I enjoy _not_ puking, so I'll do without, thanks." Elyza drank the last of her soup of the bowl. "And since I made food, you get to clean up while I bathe."

"You're a fucking tyrant sometimes, you know that?" Raven grumbled, scooping all of the dishes together into a pile she could carry to the small sink up front. She didn't need dinner and a show, and since all they had to work with were the industrial sinks in the back for dishes and bathing, Raven would happily take a tiny sink over the need to bleach her own eyeballs.


	10. Tris can't catch a break

"I don't believe you Travis." Madison snapped as soon as the office door was shut, "How can you be okay with that woman putting weapons into the hands of children?"

"Hey, calm down Madi." He put his hands on her arms, "Anya was just trying to look out for the kids. Liza and I don't approve any more than you do, but she's just being practical, and we have to as well. If something happens, they should be able to protect themselves."

"You and Liza?" Madison scoffed, "Of course, I forgot you and your wife were taking care of your son. Who cares that your bitch of a half-sister is not only undermining my authority, but endangering the lives of my children. But it's fine because you and Liza agree right?"

"Madison," Travis sighed, "I didn't mean it like that okay? I get that you're angry, I am too-"

"Oh you are?" Madison shoved his hands off her, "Because it really looks like you're fine with all of this." She gestured towards the rest of the house. "You said it would be safe here!"

"It is!" Travis insisted, "But to be safe we have to be willing to protect ourselves, and sometimes that means weapons."

"What happened to you? I thought we were on the same page about this. Hurting people only makes all of this worse."

Travis sighed, running a hand over his face, "I don't know what to say, Anya has more experience in situations like this than any of us. I think that if she trusts the kids to be careful, then maybe we should too."

"That's just perfect Travis, let's give guns to babies then." She threw her hands up in the air, "Why don't we let Nick detox on his own too, see how that works out? Since we're going to trust them to be adults and take care of themselves we might as well right? I should have known that you would let your crazy sister run right over you, you always do this!"

"And what am I supposed to do about it huh?" He snapped, "Let her kick us out so we can pick between the riots and the city full of who knows how many thousands of sick people? Are you really going to risk Nick and Alicia's lives on the principle that holding a gun is going to make them into murderers? She's not telling them to shoot anyone, she trying to give them a way to protect themselves! I thought you would understand that!"

Madison looked away from him, still fuming but unable to come up with anything that made sense. Travis crouched down to look her in the eye, taking her hands, "Hey, I'm not saying we let them run wild. Just, when they're outside, we give them a way to protect themselves, to signal for help. Okay?"

"Fine." She refused to meet his gaze.

"Madi?"

"No, do what you like. I can't stop you anymore than I can stop her." Madison folded her arms and tried to contain her frustration.

"Madi…."

"I need to get Nick his dose." She dug into her bag and pulled a single pill from the bottle. They were down to four a day, hopefully that would be enough.

"Do they realize we can hear them?" Nick asked, looking towards the door his mom and Travis were arguing behind.

"They don't really care, Nick." Alicia shrugged, "I think Liza and Anya are the only reasons they didn't just stay here to have the argument."

"Ouch." Nick muttered, "You ever think about just wandering into the room, just to be there, see if they notice? I think about that sometimes."

"I wouldn't have to wander into the room. They've had fights like this over the table while I'm right there. I just put in my earphones." Alicia looked away from her brother, not wanting to see his face.

"I think that's just how parents are." Chris butted in, trying to comfort Alicia with a hand on her arm, "Mom and dad are always like that. At least now it's mostly over the phone."

"Well I guess it moved from your house to mine." Alicia stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"You good kid?" Anya looked up from the dishwasher.

"I just get tired of it all. It'll be fine." Alicia moved to help with the dishes.

"Just do what I did." Anya grinned, "Build a shack in the middle of nowhere with more guns than neighbors and all that shit has a tendency of staying far away."

"Berkley was my shack and no one is as bad as they are." Alicia sighed a little, "Now I don't think it'll work out for either one of us."

"Gee thanks kid." Anya drawled, "Just rub it in." She started scrubbing the pans that couldn't go in the dishwasher with more force than was really necessary, "The mom squad is helpless."

Alicia laughed, "Just don't ever let me join the mom squad, I'd rather be eaten alive."

Anya pointed a fry pan at her, intent on telling her not to tempt fate and then she paused, "Deal. I'll feed you to the zoo if it's ever a risk."

"Thank God." Alicia grabbed a towel and started to dry the cleaned dishes. "So what do you think is going on? Mom, Nick and Travis don't make any sense with the little they do tell me."

"Well Travis is delusional on the best of days, and the other two aren't much better." Anya snorted, "I figure we won't get the big picture until we ditch the paddles. For now I'm going to assume the country of FUBAR has taken command and prepare accordingly."

"Ok so what does that mean? We know how to shoot, but that can't be all we should be doing." Alicia asked

"You shouldn't be doing anything." Madison interjected, "You Nick and Chris need to stay here where it's safe and let the adults take care of things."

Anya looked to Alicia for her response. "And how did letting the adults take care of things work out for Nick?" Alicia glared at her mother.

"That's a different situation and you need to let it go. He's with us again, and we're weaning him off the drugs."

"Really, Mom? Either this is a situation we have never been in before so you are as clueless and helpless as the rest of us. Or Nick will be gone in a few weeks, back on the damn drugs and you'll be gone trying to find him." Alicia threw the towel on the counter.

Madison's hands were clenched so tightly that her arms shook from the effort and she took a step forward with a foreign look in her eyes. "You don't know the first thing-!"

"Okay." Anya stepped between the two women, "Let's take a big step back. Madison, I get that things are stressful right now but you need to take a walk." She met the older woman's eyes and didn't look away until Madison stormed out of the kitchen. "Alicia," She raised her eyebrows, "I don't know what you're looking for, but that is not the way to go for it."

Alicia nodded her head, "I'm going out to the deck for some air."

"Stick to the back of the house." Anya patted her on the back, "Wouldn't want to have to break up a catfight on the second day. It'd be worse than our family reunions."

"Hey Anya, would you come look at Tris? She doesn't seem to be getting any better..." Liza paused, seeming like she wanted to say more.

"Yeah." Anya sighed and walked into the living room while she dried her hands. There was so much going on around them, it felt like she never had a second to breathe. "Did she ever drink that water?"

"She did. I actually got her two more cups, she said she's really thirsty." Liza turned back into the living room and moved to Tris' side.

"Well that's good." Anya checked Tris' head, "She's clammy and," Anya frowned, "Her pulse is elevated too."

"I haven't spoken to her in almost 2 hours. That was when she drank the last of the water." Liza pushed Tris' hair back from her eyes, "Should we wake her?"

"No, I spoke to her at breakfast." Anya shook her head, "Just keep an eye on her? Wake her up in an hour and see how she's doing. Where is she, what's her name, basic stuff."

Liza's face pinched in concern, "What are you worried about?"

Anya sighed, "Snake bites are never good and we don't have access to proper medical care and antivenin." Anya shook her head again. "This has always been about doing what we can and hoping for the best, but at this point any symptoms are a concern."

"Got it." Liza nodded, grabbing Tris' cup to refill it. "I'll keep you posted?"

"Yeah." Anya pushed up and away from the sofa. "I'll be in my room for the next little while, get me if you need me."

"Sure thing Anya."

Anya walked into her bedroom pulling the door mostly closed behind her and took just a minute to take a deep breath. This morning had been good at keeping her busy, but she wouldn't be able to ignore what she had seen during her run forever. It would have to be dealt with.

For now though, it was time to see if the radio would give her any more details. Maybe even contact with Indra again. Anya sat on the edge of her bed and pulled the radio setup closer to her on the nightstand. She turned everything on and began on the channel she had last contacted Indra. "This is Sergeant Forester of the SASR hailing Colonel Pines at the Pendleton base, does anyone read me? Over."

"This is Master Chief Woods speaking, Sergeant Forester I need you to move to our private channel."

"Yes, Sir. Switching now." Anya began turning the dials, tuning to their preferred frequency for covert missions, it was something Indra had established years ago in case of emergency.

"Anya where the hell are you? Indra said something about you being with civvies and then the connection cut out before she could get anything else." Gustus wasted no time on pleasantries.

"I'm at home with my family." Anya allowed no inflection into her tone. "I've received no verified information on what's happening, Sir, but some weird shit is happening." Anya wouldn't normally cuss while speaking to a superior officer, but there was just no other way to phrase it.

"I'll second that." He scoffed, "I've got more guns than I can count pointing in every direction and I'm starting to think hedgehogs feel a lot more anxious than they let on. Have you been briefed about the infection yet?"

"No Sir, only rumor from civilians with more adrenaline than sense." Anya responded.

"Adrenaline is about all we have going for us right now Anya. As far as we can tell the infection is spread through contact with bodily fluids, specifically blood and saliva. They bite. Hard. So don't let them get their hands on you. Current prescription for any infected is a bullet to the brain." He sounded normal at the beginning of his little speech, but by the end Gustus was dead tired. There were only so many civilians and fellow soldiers you could shoot before it started getting to you, and as far as he was concerned, one was more than enough.

"What does the infection do, Sir?" Anya was wary and a little confused. A bullet to any kill zone was enough to put down any diseased individual she had ever heard of, and head shots could be iffy, especially on the move.

"The short version?" He paused, reluctant to even voice what was going on. "They're dead. As doornails. The infection kills you, and some period of time after your heart stops, you get back up and start attacking anything living."

Anya choked on air a bit, not sure she understood, or really didn't want to understand. "Sir, are you saying that this infection reanimates the dead?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying Anya."

Anya just couldn't come up with an appropriate response to that.

"Yeah." Gustus gave a chuckle, "It's a lot right? It makes more sense when you see it, just be sure not to miss when it happens, got it? You're a good soldier and I'd hate to lose you to something as stupid as panic."

"No Sir. What are my orders?" Anya asked, unsure for the first time in her life about what was coming.

"Get your ass to San Diego."

"And the civilians with me?"

"We're taking in anyone who isn't bitten. They would get first class seats on the first bird or boat out of here. The plan is to evac the civilians, drop napalm on the major nests of infected and clean house."

Anya took a deep breath and slowly release it. Napalm was a last resort and there would be no returning once it had dropped. This was end of world shit. "I've got injured with me, what's the medical situation look like?"

He paused a lot longer than Anya would have liked before he responded. "We have limited resources Sergeant, you know we can't take on any additional risks."

Anya swore, violently and loudly.

"Anya? Is everything okay in there?" Liza called.

"Yeah it's fine!" Anya called back to Liza. "Sir, the injured with me won't make it more than 24 hours without medical attention." Anya spoke quietly into the radio, not wanting anyone else to overhear.

Gustus sighed and Anya could practically see him rubbing the ever growing bald spot on his head. "The order comes from brass, we aren't to take on any medical risks. All supplies are being stockpiled until the country can get back on its feet. We've established martial law until the crisis is over."

"Sir," Anya paused and then began again. "Sir, I've got a twelve year old with a rattlesnake bite and it's going to kill her. I can't just leave her here to die alone."

"No exceptions Sergeant." Gustus knew what she was asking for, "I expect you to report to the Pendleton base in three days. Get your affairs in order, and get your ass out here."

"Yes, Sir. Sergeant Forester out." Anya reset the handset with slightly shaky hands. _What. The. Fuck. Get my fucking affairs in order? My affairs have always been in fucking order, so it isn't so simple as writing a damn will. Did he mean to get family down to Pendleton too? Except that Gustus would've just said that, its not like we had to be worried about civilian ears hearing classified information. Three days would be more than enough time to bury Tris, pack up and haul ass to San Diego._

 _What the hell would take three days to get done?_ Anya got up and started pacing, needing some kind of outlet for the nervous energy that Gustus' words had evoked. She mulled over his words half a dozen times before she stopped in her tracks. _He's giving me time to run._

 _Master Chief Gustus Woods, the man she had dragged out of more tight spots than she could count, the man who was even more dedicated to his career than she was, that man was offering her a chance to desert before the going got tough._ "What does that dumb bastard think he's doing?" She made two more laps of her room before she realized. _I can't think about this right now._

Anya grabbed her jacket and keys and strode to the back porch with a clear mission in mind. Something to get her out of this stupid cycle of doubt. "Get your shit, we're checking the well." Anya informed Alicia.

"Uh, what?" Alicia leaned on the railing to try and talk to Anya's back as she circled the house.

"Knife or gun." Anya stopped in front of Madison, determined to make someone else deal with their shit instead of dealing with her own.

"Excuse me?"

"Do you want a knife or a gun." Anya stated more than she asked.

"I don't want either." Madison replied looking confused.

"I'm taking Alicia to check out the well. I figured that as her mother you would like to get involved." Anya bit back the snarky remark about Madison always wanting to be involved when she wasn't needed. "So would you like a knife or a gun?" She did her best to sound polite, but it mostly sounded like she was bleeding internally.

"A gun."

"Perfect. I'll meet you at the jeep in five." Anya turned around and dug through the safe for the appropriate weapons and holsters. She checked each one for wear and tear and grabbed ammunition for all of them before returning to the Jeep. "Madison, Travis mentioned you used to go hunting with your dad." She passed the woman a shotgun, "12 gauge."

Anya watched as Madison took the weapon, keeping the barrel pointed at the ground as she popped the clasp and checked if it was loaded. "Shells?"

With an approving nod, Anya passed the small box to Madison. "No loaded weapons in Baby." Madison rolled her eyes and got into the passenger seat. "Kid." Anya turned around, "Glock and a knife." She held out both to Alicia, careful to keep her hand on the barrel of the handgun as she passed it.

Alicia smiled, "I've still got the butterfly you gave me for christmas last year." She took the Glock and hit the chamber release, catching the clip as it slid out. Alicia slid it back in with a nod and drew back the slide with her thumb to the trigger to ensure it wasn't loaded. It dropped back into place with a click and Alicia engaged the safety before sliding it into the holster that Anya was holding out for her. "Do I pass inspection?" She asked with a shy grin.

"Don't get cocky." Anya clipped the spare knife to her belt and climbed into the driver's seat. Alicia's smile only grew as she joined them in the jeep. Not even Madison's murderous glare could quell her pleased grin. Anya approved.

"A butterfly knife, Anya?" Madison hissed

"Oh please," Anya rolled her eyes, "It's a gentleman's weapon." The jeep roared to life beneath them and Anya stepped on the gas.

"What does that even mean?" Madison muttered under the roar of Anya's overpowered engine.

"Keep an eye out for trespassers. No one you don't recognize should be on this land." Anya spoke while driving away from the house. Despite the other two keeping a lookout, she made a point to watch the landscape for anything moving that was bigger than a tumbleweed.

"Why do we need to check the well?" Madison asked.

"Because it's the only reliable water source within twenty miles, and I'd like to make sure it's ours." Anya snarked, "That tent city out there is going to run dry faster than a water balloon fight at burning man. My well is going to be their first target."

"How are we going to keep the well safe?" Madison asked with sudden fear tinging her voice.

"We start with making sure that it's in good shape." Anya jerked to a stop next to a stand of rocks and looked around before flipping one of the rocks over to reveal the well head. "After that we're going to secure this bitch to the rocks and call it a day. The fewer times we come out here, the less likely it is for some asshole to trip over it."

"You hide your well under a rock?" Madison was confused. Again.

"It's fake." Anya tossed the fake cover at Madison like it was a frisbee. "Plastic." She opened a panel in the side of the stand of rocks and checked the display on the pump itself. "Alicia can you bring me the gas can from the trunk?"

Alicia came jogging over, eyes peeled for movement on the horizon. "Here."

"Thanks." Anya filled the pump's generator and closed the panel. "Get that facade back over the wellhead and we can get out of here."

"Yes auntie." Alicia smirked.

"That's all?" Madison had expected something much more dangerous with the way Anya had treated them, and the weapon inspection she seemingly expected from Alicia. It all felt so over the top.

"That's another month of water." Anya shrugged, "It seemed easier than mounting an offensive against the nearest populated area."

Madison blinked. _Was that a joke?_

"Let's get back to the house, we don't want anyone to see us out here." Anya climbed back into the jeep and started it back up.

As they pulled up to the shack, Liza ran out to meet them "Anya! Tris needs you!"

Anya stomped on the brakes, jerking the vehicle to a stop and leapt out as soon as the jeep was in park. "What's going on?" She demanded, jogging to the house.

"She's cold, but drenched in sweat, she says her head and stomach hurt and she keeps getting confused." Liza pulled open the door so that Anya didn't have to slow down.

Anya brushed past the boys gathered in the living room and knelt by Tris, her hands frantic as she checked the girl's forehead for a temperature. Cold. She moved down to her dressings. Still secure and clean. What the hell went so wrong? Anya moved all the way up the dressing and lifted the girl's shirt to check the upper end, and that's when she saw it. A massive bruise spreading across Tris' abdomen, her stomach distended from internal bleeding.

"A bleed? How?" Liza couldn't remember Tris even moving that far, let alone taking an impact of that magnitude to her stomach.

"She must have hit something when she was outside." Anya softly probed Tris' stomach, the skin pulled taut with little give and sighed. "Try to call medical services again, but if you get through to them tell them no rush."

"You know she's not gonna make it." Nick pointed out.

"I'm aware of what is happening, Nick." Anya glared at him, "Medical services will be who her parents contact to find her."

Tris stared between them both, "I'm gonna die?" Tears were beginning to well up in her eyes, not just from the pain but from fear now.

The room was uncomfortably silent. "Of course not." Travis reassured her, "Liza is going to get through to the hospital, and they're gonna send someone to come get you. You're going to be just fine."

"Travis." Anya reproached. She turned to more fully face the little girl on her sofa. "Tris, I'm really sorry, but yes. You are going to die. There is nothing I can do and we are too far away for help to get here in time."

"Anya! Stop saying that, she's just a little girl!" Madison snapped.

"No, she's a person, and she deserves to know the truth." Anya wasn't dealing with any of their idealistic bullshit. "Tris, I know your scared, I would be too, but do you have anything you would like to say to your family? I can write it down for you and give it to them when we find your parents."

Tris was quietly sobbing now, but she nodded her head. "I just want to tell them I love them, and that I'm sorry I wandered off." The words were barely understandable through the crying, but clear enough to break the hearts of those listening.

Anya nodded and stroked Tris' hair, "That's perfect. Do you know their names, so we can find them?"

"It's Howard and Emma Haywood."

Anya jotted the names down above Tris' words and did her best to smile. "Perfect, now they'll know just how much you love them. You did a good job kid." She showed Tris the short letter so that she could make any changes she wanted to it.

"I still can't get through to medical services." Liza said, phone still in hand as she came back into the room.

"That's fine." Anya took a deep breath, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Now Tris," She did a little better at smiling this time, "Why don't you tell me about your favorite place in the world."

"My favorite place?" Tris asked, her crying had slowed to just streams of tears rolling down her cheeks. "My favorite place is the park near the soccer fields. My dad would take me there with henry, my dog, when my mom had to work. We would stop before we got there and get these huge ice cream cones. And then we would walk through the park into the back trails. There was this one path we would always take that would lead us to a lake. Henry would splash in the water while we would sit on the rocks and eat our ice cream." Tris drifted off.

"What flavor would you get?" Alicia asked.

"What?" Tris asked.

"What flavor of ice cream?"

"What kind of ice cream do you have?"

Alicia frowned and Anya interrupted her before she could try to clarify again, "That sounds like a wonderful place kid. Why don't you go back to sleep for a little bit while we get lunch ready."

"I eat lunch after math class. Is this math class?" Tris tried to sit up.

"No kid, it's nap time." Anya put a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder, not needing much force to keep her down, "So close your eyes and take deep breaths."

Tris settled back onto the sofa and followed Anya's instructions. Soon she relaxed in sleep and the room took a breath themselves. Anya sat back on her heels, "Go find something to do. The kid isn't gonna sleep long with all of you staring at her."

As the others began to leave the room Alicia walked over to the bookcase in the corner of the room and began reading through the titles. Finding one, she pulled it from its place on the shelf and settled into an armchair. She didn't really intend to get much out of the book, but she had seen how hard it could be to be the only one in a room when someone passed while she worked in the hospital. Anya shouldn't be alone.

Nick didn't stray far either, hanging out in the dining room, right on the edge of straying into the living room, arms crossed over his chest as he waited for the inevitable. No one believed him yet, so it was his job to make sure nothing else happened.

Tris' light breathing was the sound that dominated the house, no one else felt comfortable enough to speak or even whisper. They were all waiting. So when Tris stopped breathing, they all knew it.

Anya clenched her fists and pulled the sheet over the girl's head. Alicia watched from her chair. Nick waited. The others gathered into the room. "Should I try medical services again?" Liza asked, her voice feeling unnaturally loud.

"No. We have her parents information. I'll write her time of death down for documentation and that'll be enough." Anya made a note on the back of the letter. "I'll take her out and bury her under the tree in the back."

"Here, let me get her cleaned up first." Liza offered, grabbing a washcloth from the kitchen and some water. Anya stood back and watched. Alicia squeezed Anya's hand gently, "Get some air, we'll take care of her."

Anya nodded and walked out and grabbed the shovel leaning against the back of the house. Metal hit dirt with a dull crunch and the hiss of the sand making a small pile to her left. Crunch and hiss. Crunch and hiss. The noise was rhythmic, almost soothing.

All too soon, she was finished.

Anya walked back into the house covered in dust and sweat. On her couch was a bundle wrapped in one of her old sheets, if she didn't think about it, it could have been an oddly shaped pile of bedding, or the kids being stupid with the pillows. She wasn't good at pretending. Anya scooped up the limp girl with a small grunt and began walking outside.

Her steps stuttered when they all heard the rattling gasp of air from the body.

"Fuck. She's back." Nick began to scramble for a weapon.

"Back? What do you mean back?" Alicia asked, her face twisted in confusion.

A low rumbling growl began to fill the air as the form wrapped in sheets began moving. The body twisting and the head snapping forward towards Anya. Anya lowered the body down onto the floor, keeping her grip firm. She grasped the head and began to unwrap the sheet before pausing. "Alicia, pull your weapon." She instructed, waiting before continuing.

Alicia planted her feet and drew her weapon in a smooth motion. Cock the slide, safety off, both hands braced on the grip and base, sight lined up on Tris' chest. Uncertainly, she questioned her aunt. "Anya?"

"I...I don't know what's going to happen. Just be ready." Nothing about this felt right, but things hadn't felt right since her idiot brother and his families showed up and with Indra and Gustus' warnings ringing in her ears, Anya needed to be sure.

After giving Alicia's stance a quick once over, Anya turned back to unwrapping the makeshift shroud. As she shifted the fabric, the body underneath her began thrashing with more force, making Anya shift her grip to Tris' now exposed hair. It wasn't ideal to have to manhandle the little girl, but it was better to be safe.

Anya bit back a gasp when she saw Tris' milky eyes wide open and staring at her. The girl looked pale but otherwise fine as she flailed, trying to break free of Anya's grasp. She arched forward, straining at Anya's grip on her hair as she snapped at the air between them, desperate for something.

Alicia maintained her stance, weapon moving to aim on what little of Tris' body she thought she could hit without harming Anya while the others broke into chaos. Nick began yelling almost incoherently about bites and killing it. Liza and Chris both falling over furniture in their attempts to escape the room, while Madison and Travis moved forward not even paying attention when they came between Alicia and her target.

Alicia moved, shifting into a better position. Now standing over Tris' body, a clear shot available if needed. "What do we do now, Anya?" Alicia asked, her voice shaking, but her hands still surprisingly steady.

Anya drew her own weapon, remembering Gustus' words. The only cure was a bullet to the brain. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Madison yelled.

"Anya just stop and think about what you're doing! This is a little girl." Travis pled, afraid to touch Anya and have her accidentally shoot someone.

Anya ignored all of them, holding Tris' head down to the wood floor and carefully placed the barrel of her gun against the child's head. The child she spent the last day trying to nurse back to health and comfort in her last moments. The child straining against her grip to try and eat Anya and her family alive. She pulled the trigger.

Everything stilled in the aftermath of the shot, but as soon as their ears stopped ringing Travis and Madison fell on her, pulling her away from the child. "Are you crazy? You just killed her!"

"What's wrong with you, she was fine, she was alive."

"Mom she wasn't fine, she was crazy!"

"She wasn't going to do anything to us, she was just scared."

"Shut up." Anya yanked herself out of Madison's grip, "She's dead." Anya scooped the girl up into her arms again and resumed her march outside.

Alicia took that as a signal to relax and dropped the barrel of her gun to the floor, turning the safety back on and releasing the trigger in a slow practiced motion. She stared wide eyed at Anya as the intensity of the moment hit her and she slumped back against the wall.

Anya's hands shook as she laid the small body into the shallow trench, carefully she recovered Tris' shroud and began to cover her with a cairn of dirt and rocks.


	11. Get in the car bitch, going shopping

Hey guys, thank you so much for your comments and your support, keep it coming. It makes my day and Bookwyrm743's to see your comments pop up in our feed, and we do our best to make sure that we reply to all of your comments. In the way of announcements, we are going to put out some extra posts during the holidays. Whether this includes Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all of the other 'holidays' only celebrated by those with a death wish and sobbing wallets or not, is entirely dependent upon whether or not my illustrious co-writer can resist the puppy-dog eyes.

"OK bitch, we need clean clothes and I'm not fucking washing your shit in the sink," Raven tossed an empty backpack at Elyza's head, watching as it dropped to the floor behind her.

"Can we at least finish cleaning up after breakfast first?" Elyza flicked wet soapy fingers at Raven's head.

"No, we can not. You can eat while you walk." Raven snagged her spear and her sandwich, an odd hitch in her get-along. "I feel like I'm wearing sandpaper slacks. I blame that shitty soap you grabbed."

"Fuck you, you grabbed the soap you dumbass." Elyza glared at Raven

" _I_ wanted to just take new clothes!" Raven waved her hands in the air, "But no! You had to go and be all moral about leaving behind fucking money."

"I'm so sorry that I don't want to go to jail for a new pair of underwear. I'm way too pretty to have to tolerate jail-shower advances." Elyza grabbed the backpack off the floor and grabbed the sandwich she had left on the countertop for herself.

"I dunno, jail is sounding pretty nice right now." Raven muttered, "At least they can do laundry properly."

"At this point I'm all about the real shower. Hot fucking water sounds so good." Elyza practically moaned.

"How about a bath that doesn't involve mopping the floor when you're done or cramming your crippled ass into a fucking sink." Raven looked to the heavens for patience.

"At this point a prison bed might feel like heaven. Those damn sofas are lumpier than great grandma's gravy." Elyza shoved half the sandwich into her mouth and started pulling the backpack on.

Raven shuddered, "Thank god I never had to go to thanksgiving with you guys. Your mom's descriptions of that shit still haunts my nightmares."

"Where are we going for new clothes?" Elyza asked as she moved towards the front door.

"There's a place just past Mr. Rope, I figured we'd leave him a little something on our way there." Raven brandished a sleeve of stale saltines. She'd eaten the first three before she decided that death was better than putting another one in her face.

"You are so fucking magnanimous." Elyza rolled her eyes.

"You don't even know how to spell that shit so shut the fuck up."

"Shut up!" Elyza hit Raven's arm.

"So much for brains _and_ boobs right?" Raven grinned, taking the hit and knowing she deserved it.

"At least I don't burn water you idiot. Like that shouldn't even be possible." They pulled the new and improved door closed behind them and Raven locked it.

"That was one time." Raven rolled her eyes, "And chemically it is possible, you just have to separate the molecules and ignite them."

"That should be something you have to do on purpose, not on the stove." Elyza laughed.

"Bitch." Raven chuckled, shoving Elyza's shoulder, "Come on, Mr. Rope is probably dying for a bite of these." She waved the crackers.

"I don't know why you keep giving him food. He didn't drink the water you left or the bread." Elyza said.

"Even people without an appetite have to eat eventually." Raven shrugged, "You leave money on the counter, I leave food for when Mr. Rope comes to his senses."

"Yeah well, we are out of money, so I'm obviously giving up on that." Elyza rolled her eyes.

Raven rubbed the back of her neck, "If it gets to be a problem I'll stop too."

"Yeah, ok." They kept walking and Elyza tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, catching herself before she landed.

"Hey! Careful there shorty," Raven helped haul Elyza to her feet, "There's only room in this town for one cripple and the spot's taken."

"I said brains and boobs, not grace." Elyza shoulder bumped Raven.

Raven snorted, "I caught that." She mussed Elyza's hair. Rattling growls to their right drew Raven's attention. "Hey Mr. Rope." She tossed him the pack of saltines and watched it land next to the other crackers and a pack of snowballs that she'd left over the past few days. "I get waiting for a better meal dude, but you should eat something." She advised.

He snarled and swiped at them, his arms an easy five feet away from either of them. "Sorry, not into the grabby ones." Raven gave him a two finger salute and kept walking. "Man, for a sick and starving guy, he just keeps going."

"He has to be getting food and water from somewhere. There's no way he could go this long without." Elyza stood as far away from him as she could.

Raven pouted, "That fucker is letting someone else feed him? You bitch!" Raven shook her fist at him.

"It's ok Rae, I'm sure you provide his favorite stale crackers." Elyza patted her arm.

She rolled her eyes, "Fuck you too."

"You wish sweetie." Elyza grinned.

"Gross, you're like my baby sister."

"So where's this store with clothes. Mama needs a new pair of underwear." Elyza turned to scan the store fronts, trying to figure out the right one.

"This way mama." Raven rolled her eyes, leading Elyza into a shoe store. At the far end was a big open arch that led to the rest of the mall, "Your wish is my command, panties galore and all the shoes you can shove on your feet." She dragged Elyza through the main floor to a giant department store in a general state of chaos. "Clean up on aisle… all of them."

"You knew this mall was here the whole time?" Elyza shot Raven a glare.

"Duh, girl had to get her boots somewhere," Raven pointed to her shoes, "But the mall isn't cheap and it's not like you were up for shoplifting earlier. What was I going to do? Whine about how my bitch of a kid sister would rather have a clean conscience than designer panties?"

"You're unbelievable." Elyza shook her head, digging through the racks of clothes for some new shirts and pants that would fit her rear.

"Unbelievably awesome, that's what you mean, right?" Raven began sorting through the shelf for pants. "Hey look, almost all they have left is my size. I'll take em!"

Elyza shot her a dirty look and kept digging for even one pair that might close over her hips.

"How's it going for you over there?" Raven asked, a smirk on her face.

"Fucking skinny ass bitches dominating the goddamn market on fucking pants." Elyza muttered, walking over with a handful of jeans.

"Aw, do we need to go find you a big girl store?" Raven juggled the armful of pants.

"No but I need to find a pet store." She snarked.

"Huh?" Raven looked up confused.

"I'm gonna find you a nice looking muzzle to go with that big mouth of yours."

"You try and muzzle me and I'll bite your face off." Raven pointed her finger at Elyza, "Let's go find some shirts, maybe you'll have better luck there, bitch."

Elyza rolled her eyes, "You're just making my case stronger." She kicked her way through the mess over to the displays full of shirts, easily finding a selection she liked.

"I also want to find a hoodie and another backpack. It'll be easier than dragging that stupid suitcase around when we need to carry more shit." Raven started adding shirts to the pile in her arms

"Sounds good to me." Elyza stuffed her new wardrobe into her backpack, "I'll go check out some of the other stores and meet you back here?"

"Yeah, cool. But stop and grab some boots or something. Those vans are cute, but they ain't gonna hold up worth shit." Raven started off to find what she wanted.

Elyza gave a huff and nodded, "Holler if you find something interesting." She picked another direction and started walking.

"As long as it isn't food I will. If I find food, I'm keeping it." Raven called back over her shoulder.

"Bitch!"

"You know you love me!"

Elyza chuckled to herself and meandered past broken storefronts and scattered product. It reminded her of a couple haunted houses Raven dragged her through right before she graduated, a right of passage or some bullshit like that. Either way Elyza had humored Raven and allowed the senior to drag her sophomore ass through every scary house in their home town. Yeah, it definitely had that creepy, someone's waiting to catch you with your pants down, vibe.

Elyza started walking up the escalator stairs, most of the floor was littered with trash and merchandise, but the escalators were almost clear. At the top of the stairs Elyza walked over the directory. The shoe store was on this level and there was a victoria's secrets downstairs, if the world was going to hell she may as well be rocking sexy underwear. She was just about to leave for the shoe store when she spotted her final destination. The food court. Elyza grinned, there's no way Raven's going to check out a map, that food court is as good as Elyza's.

With a grin, Elyza headed to the shoe store. It had been torn apart just like every other place in the mall. Most of the shelves had been emptied, the boxes of shoes dumped on the floor and thrown wherever. She headed down what should have been the right aisle, looking for shoes that Raven might approve of. Reaching down she found a single hiking boot in a box labeled for her size. Getting down on her hands and knees, she found the twin shoved under the shoe pulled off her dirty and torn sneakers and pulled on the hiking boots, not a bad fit but better socks would be nice.

As she walked towards the front of the door, Elyza stopped by the front display and grabbed an extra backpack. It had a kid cartoon character on it, but it'd give her more space. After she had filled that backpack with socks from the display she grabbed 2 more bags, maybe she could find enough to fill them in the food court.

Next stop, lingerie. Elyza grinned, it would be fun to go wild with no price limit. Elyza jogged down the stairs and noted the crunching glass beneath her shoes, maybe Raven isn't being as paranoid as she thought. Pausing just before she should see the store she turned and headed into the bath store. Some candles and some nice smelling soap wouldn't go amiss. Opening one of the bags she started stuffing it with a few of her favorite scents, grabbing a few of Raven's favorites too, before heading back out into the mall.

Elyza started to grin upon entering VIctoria's Secret. Let the candy store rampage begin. She thought to herself, running her hands over some of the lacier garments. She took more time in here than she did in the payless and the bath and body works combined, browsing the shelves for anything that struck her fancy and fitting it into the remaining space around the candles and clothes in her bags.

When she found everything she wanted, Elyza shouldered the heavy packs and started for the food court. Best shopping trip ever.

The food court wasn't too messy, lots of tables and chairs had been thrown into piles but no clothes on the floor and most of the garbage didn't smell too bad. Elyza put her bags down on the floor, just beyond the tables and out of the way. They were too heavy to carry through all of the restaurant fronts. Elyza started on the front closest to her, they had nothing that she could take with her, that was the problem with wanting all fresh organic food. It was gross in just a few days. The next few store fronts didn't net much, just some packages of pasta, a few bruised apples and some tins of meat.

Elyza paused her searching, she thought she had heard something. After a few seconds she hadn't heard anything so she kept rummaging. As she closed the water bottle display Elyza dropped a few of the bottles she had been juggling. She set the ones in her arm on the counter and grabbed the other ones. One, two...where had the third bottle of water gone? She set the two she had on the counter with the others and got onto her hands and knees to see if she could find it. It took a minute and she almost had to lay on the floor to get to the bottle that had rolled underneath a rolling stand.

A low gurgle sounded above her and Elyza popped her head up above the counter, feeling that creepy vibe set in once more. A woman stood on the other side of the counter, staring at her with milky white eyes that seemed to look straight through her. "Uh, Hi." Elyza scooted back a little bit from the woman's intense gaze.

The woman gave a wet snarl and lunged at Elyza, shoving past the water bottles towards the girl. Elyza shrieked and shoved herself back from the woman who was caught on the counter, reaching as far as she could and snatching at Elyza's hair.

With a solid foot of space between her and the woman's fingertips, Elyza pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her bags, staring wide-eyed at the faze of the viciously snarling woman.

Elyza frantically searched for a way around her and bolted left, careening through the scattered cookware of the connected storefronts, the candles, and tins clanking loudly in her pack. Elyza caught onto a counter and used her grip on it to swing out to the main floor of the food court.

A door slammed open behind her and a man with equally sightless eyes came stumbling out, his arms extended towards Elyza.

"Go away!" She shouted, backing away from the two people following her, staring at her like a piece of meat. Elyza heard the death rattle just moments before she felt it. A broad something, warm and damp with a disturbing dip in the center. Elyza jerked away from the touch and turned to see what it was.

She almost lost it right there.

A medical cadaver has more organs that this… Thing standing in front of her. Elyza reached back to touch the damp spot on her shoulder and it came away a dark burgundy. Blood from the gaping hole in his chest where she knew his organs should be, where something should be.

His whole chest cavity was empty and he was still standing, still walking towards her. Oh god, he's walking towards her. Move Lex! Elyza turned her back on the cadaver and sprinted for the department store, "Raven! Raven where the FUCK are you?" She screamed, her legs burning already.

There were more of them gathering, their gurgling breaths and grasping hands chasing her down the halls, their steps slow and measured but persistent as they continued. Elyza kept moving as fast as she could, but her body wasn't cooperating very well. It seemed like her limbs were too heavy and even though she tried to avoid all the crap on the floors it seemed like she managed to trip on everything anyway. "RAVEN!"

It felt like a horrible dream, her feet skidding on glass and debris and even the floor itself, hands brushing over her arms as the people behind her got closer, and all she could hear was the thunder of her heart.

"ELYZA! WHERE ARE YOU?" Raven yelled, panic in her voice.

"I'M HERE! THEY'RE RIGHT ON MY TAIL!" Elyza skidded into one of the major junctions and caught a glimpse of Raven right as she lost traction and crashed into one of the kiosks.

"WHO?" Raven yelled back, her brace giving a telltale creak as she ran towards Elyza.

Elyza scrambled out of the wreck of splintered wood and cheap jewelry, barely aware of the cuts and scrapes across her face. "Get back!" She waved her arm only to have it smack into someone's body.

During her struggle to get out, the people following her had time to catch up. Raven could only watch as Elyza kicked and threw her backpack around, knocking her way through the clumsy bodies, dodging teeth and hands with an expertise that could only be explained by sheer bloody panic and a heavy ass backpack.

Raven's moment of shock ended and she came barreling down the hall, smashing her own pack into the face of a chick with her mouth wide open for the chance to chomp on her chump sister. "What the fuck did you say to them?!"

"I-" Elyza kicked out a guy's knee, "Said-" She yanked her pack free of one's grip and began dragging Raven back towards the door, "Hi! Now let's get out of here!"

Raven didn't have air for more questions, and Elyza didn't have the energy to answer them anyway. They booked it for home until they ran out of steam by the shop and save, hands on their knees, gasping for oxygen.

Elyza shook from head to toe, her body on the edge of collapse. "W-we have to keep going." She fisted her hand in Raven's sleeve and started pulling her towards the bookstore. "Just a little bit more."

A rattling gasp to their left had them both upright and looking for the source when they saw him. "Mr. Rope?" Raven's eyes were wide, "The fuck did you do?"

Mr. Rope crawled toward them, clawing at the asphalt with his fingertips to move closer. His legs were in a heap by the pole, still tied on and bleeding sluggishly. Mr. Rope's top half was dragging a multitude of organs like ropes of old sausage, and the smell of rotting meat hit their noses like so many trucks of sewage.

Elyza gave a shudder and hunched over as her stomach violently relocated its contents across the double yellow line.

"Oh god," Raven covered her nose with the back of her hand, not even sure what she was trying to protect herself from. The yellowish liquid on her boots, or the…. Stuff coming out of Mr. Rope. "Get it out…" She patted Elyza's back, staring at the man she had vaguely bonded with, shred his organs on the asphalt.

"We need to get back." Raven pulled Elyza up and started pulling her towards the bookstore.

Elyza nodded, following Raven but her eyes stayed on the snarling man trying to follow them. She couldn't figure it out. Her mind was blank and she knew that there was a reason that all of this was happening and she needed to think about it, but she couldn't get past that spot. That spot of knowing that she was supposed to be focusing on something.

Then she was being dragged into the bookstore and Elyza knew she couldn't see Mr. Rope anymore, it would be impossible to see him, but the image was burned on her eyelids and she couldn't get away from it. From all of them. Mr. Rope, and the cadaver and all the others who had nasty bite marks or broken arms or red marks dripping down their chests, but it's all dried and old and Elyza was starting to realize that maybe that grandma in the Mercedes wasn't just a grandma anymore.

"Elyza?" Raven crouched in front of her friend, but the blonde was totally spaced out, "Okay, even I feel like a bitch for this." Raven brought her hand up and slapped Elyza across the face, "Elyza!"

Elyza blinked, the pain from the slap slowly seeping into her consciousness. "What?" Her words were still slow and vaguely slurred, making her sound almost drunk.

"What is wrong with you? Did something happen? Are you fucking okay?" Raven started checking Elyza for injuries in particular, her head.

"Uh...I, um. Am I in shock?" Elyza asked, her confusion overwhelming.

"I don't know, but you've got some fucking nasty scratches here." Raven showed Elyza some scratches on her arms, four of them, "Looks like some bitch tried to fight you for the last toaster on black friday."

"Oh. Ow. Those hurt." Elyza stared at them like she hadn't known they were there before.

"Yeah I bet they do." Raven rolled up Elyza's sleeve and grimaced, "Do you remember if that first aid kit in the kitchen had anything?"

"Uh, I don't know, but I grabbed the one Mom left in your apartment." Elyza replied.

Raven nodded, "Yeeaaaaahh, I probably should have thought of that."

"Raven, can you help me get my shirt off? It's…" Elyza shuddered and started shivering.

Raven raised an eyebrow, "I don't think that's a good idea hon, you're shivering." Raven shrugged off her jacket and moved around Elyza to set it on her shoulders and forced herself not to heave. "Nevermind, we need to get that shit off of you."

Elyza started pulling at her shirt. The feel of the wet fabric had been bothering her, but it somehow got worse after Raven's comment. She kept pulling on the hem but couldn't seem to get the shirt pulled up. Raven helped the girl out of her situation, doing her best to keep the… Chunks from getting in Elyza's hair or touching her at all. "Oh," Raven heaved, "I'll be back." She ran into the back and Elyza heard the telltale splatter of Raven losing the contents of her stomach.

Sitting on the floor in only her bra and pants Elyza's shivering intensified so it looked like she was being electrocuted. Raven came back in without the shirt and looking pale. One glance at Elyza and she limped her way up to the loft where they kept the blankets. "Where did you put the kit?" She called over the rail.

"Uh, the suitcase, maybe, I think." Elyza chattered.

Raven rifled through the suitcase, leaving a mess behind and came back down the stairs with a grimace, Grandma Reyes' blanket, and the first aid kit. "Why the fuck did we pick a place with stairs?" She grouched, draping the blanket over Elyza.

She didn't wait for a response, Raven just plopped herself on the floor next to Elyza and started cleaning her arm. "You know it's a good thing I know how to use this shit, otherwise we'd be fucked if you hit your head again."

"I need to clean up, it's still on my skin, Rae." Elyza shuffled a bit.

"Yeah well we need to get you bandaged up, so do you want to freeze to death in the kitchen first, or get your arm fixed."

"It'll be easier to fix my arm if the rest of me is clean." Elyza moved onto her hands and knees and looked at the kitchen door, contemplating just crawling into the kitchen. Standing was going to be too much work.

"Okay, this is just sad." Raven pushed Elyza to sit down, "Let me heat up some water in the kettle and you can get your sponge bath on, because you are not crawling, and I'm sure as hell not carrying you."

Elyza looked at the kitchen door again before nodding, and sitting back on her heels again.

"Just," Raven got to her feet with a momentary pinch in her expression. She hooked her hands under Elyza's armpits and lifted her just enough to put Elyza into one of the chairs. "Sit." She moved towards the counter and looked back with a hand out, "Stay."

Raven busied herself warming up water for Elyza, fighting the urge to let herself sit down. She wasn't sure she would stand up again when she did. The kettle gave a ding and Raven returned to Elyza with a folded up t-shirt to use as a towel and the hot water for her. "How sponge bath do you want this sponge bath?"

"Just help me with my back and I can do the rest." Elyza paused and looked at the bags, "Can you grab the vanilla spice body wash out of my bag? I might need the whole bottle to get rid of this smell."

"Where the fuck did you get this shit?" Raven pulled the body wash out, "And fucking candles too? You bitch." She grinned, "Just a second." She tossed the body wash into Elyza's lap and pulled out a couple of candles. A bit of aluminum foil and those car batteries was all Raven needed to light them up. "Now we are living the dream, sponge baths by candlelight."

Elyza had a faint grin on her face, "Rae, don't make this weird." She focused on washing her arms and front down.

"Right." She giggled, waiting until Elyza was done before taking the cloth and washing down her blood smeared back.

Raven was behind her washing her back when Elyza spoke in a hushed whisper, "He was dead, Raven."

"Who?" Raven frowned, trying not to spread the blood any further.

"The guy, who…" Elyza swallowed the thick lump in her throat. "The guy whose blood is all over me." She paused again, this was so hard. "He came up behind me and hugged me. Sort of. I think he was trying to bite me, but he was missing his stomach." Elyza stopped again, her gorge rising. "There was just nothing there, it was empty."

Raven's hand paused, "Honey, either he was dead or he hugged you." Her voice was quiet, for once she was trying *not* to provoke Elyza. Honestly she was worried her friend was having a mental breakdown, not that she blamed her.

"Just like Mr Rope, who should be dead once he's split in fucking half?!" Elyza's voice became louder and more shrill as she spoke.

Raven wiped away the last of the mess on Elyza's back and put the cloth aside, hugging Elyza tightly, "Shh, okay we don't need to worry about that right now." She closed her eyes, "Just take deep breaths honey."

Elyza shook her head and reached for Raven's hand, "Raven. This isn't the flu." She tugged on Raven's hand, forcing her to turn fully to face her. "Those people in the mall, were dead. This is not a normal epidemic."

Raven stared back wide-eyed, "Okay, so, like they're dead?" Raven raised her eyebrows, "Like all the way dead? Dead people are walking around trying to eat us." Raven clarified, trying to make sense of those words.

"Like we somehow landed in the Night of the Living Dead realm." Elyza said.

"Personally I prefer Army of the Damned, but yeah I feel you." Raven glanced down at Elyza's arm, "If you want we can always find a chainsaw for that arm." She offered with a half smiled.

"Ha. Ha" Elyza snarked, "That actually could be kind of cool, but more importantly we have a new set of rules now. We aren't trying to avoid sweaty, pale germy soccer moms, we are trying to avoid people who want to eat us, and not in the fun way."

Raven nodded, "Spears don't seem like such a bad idea now."

"Okay, seriously, shit is real."

"Yeah, yeah." Raven raised her hands, "I know. Just trying to look on the bright side here. So commando black chick was right about people being scary as fuck, and we need to stay far the fuck away from them."

"And when we can't?" Elyza was worried, "That mall looked dead, no pun intended, and then all of a sudden it was crawling with the dead."

Raven chewed her lip, "I guess we gotta become badasses now?"

"Any idea how we can do that?" Elyza asked.

"Not really."


	12. 12 Intentions

**So...I told you I'd suck at this. Sorry for taking forever, but on the upside here's like, 4 chapters for you to binge on!**

 **As realization sinks in for Anya and the others, desperation sinks in for Nick, and teeth sink into a... well a rather expected plot twist.**

 **TLDR; shit gets real**

One solid strike to the nail and it was done. A copy of the letter Tris had dictated for Anya was tagged to the tree over her grave. Anya intended to find her parents and give them the letter personally, but things had gone so fucking sideways there were no guarantees and this might just have to do.

Anya collected her tools and left the fresh grave to return to the house.

"Anya?" Alicia asked softly. She wasn't exactly sure how Anya was feeling or if she wanted to be alone, but Anya is the person she usually goes to for direction.

"We've got work to do kid." Anya sighed, this was a fucking disaster and there was no time for feelings. "Get everyone back into the living room. We gotta talk."

Alicia nodded and walked through the house collecting everyone. No one spoke very loudly, it still seemed odd and disrespectful to raise their voices. Though judging by the looks on Travis and Madison's faces when Alicia opened the door they certainly had no issues arguing in the hours after the little girls death. Or whatever it was that had happened.

Anya stood in the center of the living room, everyone else had taken positions on the furniture or the floor, she looked alone and isolated. Not usually a look that could be attributed to Anya, but there were lots of things going on that were unusual. They waited in silence, no one wanting to start first but the weight of the unspoken was growing.

"What were you thinking?" Madison broke the silence, it was obvious that she had been bursting with the question for a while. "That little girl wasn't actually dead, and then you fucking shot her!"

Anya took a step towards Madison with her hand outstretched and stopped, taking a deep breath and clenching that hand into a fist before tucking it behind her back. Her eys went from burning with rage to cold and calculating, "Madison, everyone. That child was neither healthy, nor alive. I have received reports that the infection is spreading and it causes you to die, at which point your corpse becomes animated and hostile."

She leveled them all with a look to make sure they were listening before she continued, "As such, we are to avoid all other people infected or not. We will assign partners, and move in groups. No one will leave the house unless armed, and no one is going to question it. Do you understand? Perfect."

"You said the infection causes you to die, but Tris died from the snakebite, how did she…" Liza trailed off, obviously confused but also unwilling to say the words animated dead.

"No idea. Until we know, we are to assume that everyone who dies gets back up."

"Calvin hadn't been bitten either. He was shot." Nick spoke quietly looking at his Mom and Travis, "He came back."

"Calvin's dead?" Alicia looked over, "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"That's not really important, Licia" Madison dismissed her daughter's hurt.

Alicia snorted, "I'll be in Aunt Anya's group." There's no way she's going to sit in the dark waiting on her mom to tell her what's going on, at least with Anya things are scary but she feels like she can handle them.

"That's fine." Anya cut in before they could get off track on their normal slew of arguments. "Who here has a watch? We need each group to have a watch in case we get seperated."

Travis frowned, "I have one, but how is that going to help?"

"Everyone needs to know when to check in, how long they've been gone and if needed you can use it to help you navigate." Anya paused and frowned, "Well, I can use it to navigate and so can the kids, so a kid in every group."

"I've got a watch too," Liza added.

"Anyone else?" Anya asked, when no one else responded, she nodded. "Ok, Alicia and I in one group. Nick, Madison and Travis in another group and Chris and Liza in the final group. Next order of business is going to be rendezvous points and bug-out bags."

"Hey! There's no way I'm going to separated from my kids!" Madison interrupted.

Anya looked at her, "You've already got too many people in your group, and I really don't give a fuck what you want Madison. Right now I'm more interested in keeping people safe over happy." She walked into the kitchen to look for her maps of the area. Behind her she could hear chaos erupt as the adults disagreed with being split up.

"Okay, so this is the map of the local area." Anya laid out the map.

"Hold on just a minute." Travis put his hand out, "We need to talk about these groups. No one here wants to be split up like this, and we sure as hell aren't going to let our kids disappear."

Anya looked up at him like he was an absolute idiot. So she just looked at him. "That is the whole point of what I'm doing. No one goes off alone, everyone knows where and when to meet up, our final destination, names, addresses, navigational skills. The entire fucking point of this plan is to keep you and your kids from ending up like that." She pointed out the back window to the tree where Tris is buried.

"Why can't we just stay together, we should just go everywhere as a group, right?" Liza asked holding onto Chris's arm like he was going to be snatched away.

Anya sighed and ground her teeth. Could they be any more stupid? "Yes because we all want to go shit with a group of people not two feet away." Anya glared at the adults, so far the kids had just been nodding in agreement with Anya. At least there was some sense in the group. Too bad it wasn't the supposed adults. "We need to be able to move without being seen, that's hard in a large group. We need to be able to move and defend ourselves, that's harder in a large group. We will need to obtain supplies, that'll take too long with a large group." Anya's tone made it clear just how stupid these complaints were. "We also don't want anyone to get left behind because we got too distracted for a head count."

"Mom, we aren't splitting up." Alicia threw in her two cents, "We're preparing in case something bad happens."

Madison folded her arms and muttered something about nothing bad happening to Travis, but otherwise stopped fighting.

"Great." Anya went back to the map, "We are right here. The tent city is due east of us, so rule of thumb, don't go east. That place is going to be pure chaos once people start dying, and people will start dying. If anything goes wrong, we should rendezvous here, it's a small town just thirty miles out. Close enough to walk it in a few days, or drive in an hour. If we split we will hang out by the motel 8 for four days."

"Four days to walk thirty miles?" Travis raised his eyebrows, "That's insane."

"I know, I can do it in one." Anya glared, "Four days should be plenty of time even if you have injured."

"What if we miss that one?" Nick asked, "Where do we go from there?"

Anya checked her watch for the date, eight-ish days before the city gets napalmed, give it two more just for everything to burn out and for red tape to get in the way. They needed a plan that would take ten days minimum. "From there you should be able to find and hotwire a vehicle, so we are going to assume that everyone will be driving. Let's hit the Sierra Madre's, the north side of the range has a station here." She moved her finger along the map, "We should be able to resupply on food and water there, maybe a decent shelter too. We'll stay there for a week, if you haven't made it to the station by then, you're fucked."

"Well that's optimistic." Madison muttered, "There's a lot of room in here for things to go wrong."

"That's why we are going to have walkies, every day from noon to one we will turn on the walkies on channel seventeen." Anya snapped, "This is not a situation for optimism Madison, the dead are getting off their asses and trying to attack ours, optimism jumped ship about a week ago."

"I have no idea how to hotwire a car, Anya." Alicia looked at her Aunt with raised eyebrows, a little surprised to find there was something they currently needed that Anya had not previously taught her.

"Well thank god she stopped at teaching you how to steal cars!" Madison snapped, "At least she has some standards. You're not teaching my kids how to hotwire a car."

"You're right." Anya grinned, "I'm teaching all of you how to hotwire a car." To Alicia she shrugged, "I was waiting until your eighteenth birthday."

"Oh my god." Madison put her head in her hands. At this point she didn't think that Anya was going to listen to a thing she said.

Alicia nodded, "Cool. But what are you going to teach us on, there's no way you'd let any of us mess with Baby."

"Who's baby?" Liza asked

"My pride and joy." Anya puffed out her chest a little bit, "And we are not practicing on Baby, we are going to use the truck."

"My truck?" Travis sputtered.

"Yes, your truck."

"Don't you think you should ask before messing with my truck?" Travis sounded indignant.

"Oh, you mean the way you should ask before dumping BOTH of your families on my doorstep?"

Travis looked down, looking like a scolded puppy before mumbling his acceptance that his truck would be the teaching instrument.

"Before we get to car jacking lessons though, everyone needs to put together their go bag. I want enough food and water for 3 days, one change of clothes, one radio per group, a knife, an unloaded handgun with 2 extra magazines, matches, a small first aid kit, flashlight, a roll of tp, and soap." Anya paused and looked at the adults who were, once again, rolling their eyes and protesting. "Everyone will collect their items, put them on a backpack and you will not pack the bags until I've inspected your choices. And Liza, please tell me you have better shoes than those?"

"Uh, these are all I brought with me." Liza held out her foot showing her slip on sneakers, "We kind of left in a hurry."

"One of your first priorities once we get into town is to find better shoes. Those will get you killed. While you are gathering your shit, I'm going to get the gun mounted on Baby." Anya looked at everyone, practically glaring the adults into submission.

"Hold on, the gun?" Chris exclaimed, "Like a legit gun like those military guys use on their cars?"

"I don't know if you noticed," Nick put a hand on Chris' shoulder and gave him a solemn look, "Your aunt is kind of a military guy."

"Yeah, but that's awesome." Chris fanboyed.

"Yeah. It's awesome. You know what else is awesome?" Nick asked turning to look at his Mom, "More meds. I feel like I'm in hell. It's time for my next dose."

"At least he didn't say his next fix." Alicia muttered to the ceiling, "You might want to find yourself a new dealer Nick, I don't think Mom's a fan of the lifestyle."

"Alicia, don't give your brother a hard time." Madison scolded, "You know how hard withdrawal is." She turned to look at Nick, "You've got at least another hour before your next dose. This is part of the process."

"Oh yeah, trust the process, I know that one." He snapped, going from sage to satan in a blink. He turned around and stormed into the kitchen to put together his go bag. "I'll be in the kitchen, TRUSTING THE PROCESS." He shouted.

"Nick," Madison sighed, before following him through the house.

"He's doing pretty well, Alicia. This is hard on him and on your Mom." Travis reminded her.

"Oh yeah, because it doesn't matter if it's hard on me seeing my big brother wash his life down the toilet, just if it hurts mom that she chased him away. Way to go Travis, boyfriend of the year."

"Stop your bitching and go get your shit together," Anya glared at Alicia this time.

Alicia gave her a stiff salute and shot a dirty look at Travis for getting her in trouble before she joined Nick in the dining room. Travis sighed, rubbing his head, "How did everything get like this?"

"People." Anya shot the sarcastic, sort of, response over her shoulder as she went out the door and around to the basement. She hadn't pulled the add-ons to the jeep up from the cellar before since they weren't easily stolen items, but now it was time to make sure that Baby was locked and loaded for bear...or the dead.

Hauling the last few items up from the cellar took a few minutes, that shit was heavy and awkward, but once it was out it only took a few minutes to get the semi-automatic gun mounted in the back of the jeep, the top wrap stowed and the grill cage installed. Taking the time to check the winch and cable setup, make sure nothing had been damaged the last time she went off roading, Anya then started loading up the extra guns and ammo she had brought up. All of the handguns would be carried, but she had a few hunting rifles and a shotgun that were a little much to carry.

With the jeep ready to drive, Anya grabbed her ladder and got it settled. The others were probably done getting their shit together, but they could wait. Anya climbed up and began messing with the switch on her lights. She usually hated having them on motion activated, what the fuck was the point of living in the middle of nowhere if you were always surrounded by light, but now it'd provide a warning if anyone tried to get too close. With all of the false alarms triggered by coyotes and the like sleep would be hard to come by, but better sleep-deprived than dead.

With everything outside the house settled, Anya walked into the kitchen to check out the go bags. She picked through the piles carefully, having to turn down almost every clothing choice, fucking shorts and a tank top do not count as clothes. Not in a desert full of cactus and venomous snakes. The knives weren't bad, but she assumed Alicia made sure no one grabbed anything from the kitchen.

The rest of the items in the bags weren't exactly easy to screw up until she got to Travis' bag. "Alicia, tell me what's wrong with this." She pointed at the stack of bullshit on the table.

Alicia looked it over and glanced up at Anya. She realized that 'I don't know' was not an acceptable answer and looked again. Alicia stifled a giggle when she saw it, "Those clips are for a .22 handgun."

"Yeah." Anya picked up the desert eagle, "Travis. Does this tiny ass clip fit into this gun?"

He looked confused, "No?"

"No." Anya rolled her eyes, "Eagles use .44 magnums, god can you even fucking shoot this thing?" She walked over to her crate of ammunition and snagged a clip for the pistol, "Come on. Alicia, make sure everyone else has the right ammo for their god damn guns."

"Yes ma'am." Alicia grinned, going through the packs for her aunt.

Anya spent the next forty-five teaching Travis how to wield the bigass pistol he picked, and how to aim with the massive kick that it packed.

Once everything had been approved and packed up Anya got her own go bag out from her bedroom closet. It was always packed and ready to go and far better equipped than the makeshift ones everyone else had, but she hadn't planned for the world to end with 6 other people tagging along.

"I need you all to go find something to mark your bag with. It can be duct tape, a bandana, an old t shirt of yours ," Anya looked around to emphasize that they couldn't use hers, "Whatever the fuck you can find, but if you can't tell which bag is yours in less than 2 seconds you are wrong."

With the previously uniform bags now tagged like airport luggage, Anya began again, "These bags go everywhere with you. You sleep, it should be beside your head. You eat, it should be at your feet. You take a shit and that bag should carry the stench."

Chris wrinkled his nose. "Gross."

"Wait till you have to drink your own piss because you had to run without it." Anya shrugged. "If we have to go and you leave your bag behind, no one is going to provide what you need. You will find it or do without."

"Jeez." He muttered, "You were a lot more fun before that kid tried to take a chunk out of you."

Anya ignored him, and the rage rising inside of her at his comment. "Madison and Liza, I need you to sort through all of the food and water we have piled in the dining room, split it into two even piles and then we can get those loaded up in the vehicles before we start hotwiring lessons."

Madison nodded and started sorting. Liza took a moment to smack her son upside the head and hiss something in his ear before stomping by him to help Madison. She raised her boy so much better than that.

Anya grabbed the fuel tanks and moved them over to the vehicles, splitting them up as evenly as possible. She hated siphoning resources away from Baby, but she didn't trust Travis to be intelligent enough to keep track of his fuel consumption, nor does Baby really have enough space to fit everyone. Not legally anyway. Even less so with the bed full of food and ammunition.

Her next issue would be to figure out which group goes in which vehicle. Optimally, she would keep Travis with his truck, but the question is whether or not that would happen in an emergency. Probably better to give out that assignment while they were by the vehicles than to wait for chance. Otherwise they'd end up with whoever jumped in a vehicle and then someone would get left behind.

They managed to dish out assignments, keep their go bags on hand, and generally keep their heads for three more days. The only serious problem was Nick. His shakes got worse, and he had two more seizures, almost dying the first time when Chris didn't know what to do and forgot to call for help.

Nick got more aggressive about getting his drugs, and as of today he is clean. Technically. Madison let him know over breakfast that they were officially out of Oxy and his response was to get up and leave. The sound of the door slamming shut behind him had been a little startling, but everyone quickly returned to their own meal.

"Don't forget you need to stick together." Anya reminded Madison in a mild tone. She wouldn't mind a few hours of Madison and Travis out of the house, especially if they took Nick's tempramental ass with them.

"I think he just needs a few minutes." Madison shook her head and stayed seated.

Anya shrugged and took another bite of her eggs. "I get that." She continued eating, but everyone could hear the unspoken words. The knowledge that nobody had gotten a few minutes since Tris died, and that Nick doesn't get a free pass for being the idiot who got himself hooked on heroin.

No one argued with Madison's statement, but they were also waiting to see how much time Nick got to cool down before it was time for him to grow up again. A full hour passed before Madison got worried, "Nick should be back by now."

"No shit." Anya looked up from her book. "If only you knew where he was."

Madison shot her a glare and grabbed her go bag and a hat to protect her from the sun. "I'm going to look for him."

"Don't forget your exit buddy." Anya reminded her, keeping her ass firmly in her armchair. Madison needed to learn that her contingency plan only works if everyone follows it, all the damn time.

"Travis!" Madison snapped, "Let's go find Nick."

"Why do I need to go?" Travis looked over from his seat.

"Because Anya is going to be a bitch about it." Madison snapped, "Let's go." Anya raised her eyebrow and watched them leave.

About three minutes after they left Anya looked over to Liza, "If you needed to find narcotics within about ten miles, where would you go?"

Liza frowned, "Tent city."

"Same. Let's move." Anya got up with a sigh. This wouldn't be a problem if Madison fucking went after her damn kid when she was supposed to.

Liza nodded, "I was thinking about that, I'm glad I'm not the only one who was worried about him looking for a new supply."

"I'm more surprised he didn't leave sooner. I would have ditched when she dropped him to twice a day." Anya shrugged, "Different strokes." She snagged her go bag and fished the keys to Baby out of her pocket. "Grab anything you'll miss, I expect that this is going to go poorly."

Liza grabbed her medical kit and Chris ran for his video camera. Alicia put on her pack and said, "I'll be in the car."

Anya smirked, proud of her girl.

Anya walked out to Baby and slung her pack into the back. Climbing into the driver's seat she sat drumming her thumbs on the steering wheel while waiting for Chris and Liza to come out. They should have had everything in their packs already, but whatever. As they climbed in Anya interrupted Liza who was pulling on her seatbelt, "No seatbelts. If we need to get out in a hurry the harness belts will take too long." Anya reached over and pulled the closest harness strap out of the way so it wasn't tucked behind Liza, "Just pay attention, if I tell you to put them on you'll need to do it on the move."

"She's not wrong." Alicia grumbled, "Last time she told me to put on my harness she was testing the roll cage."

"We are not testing the roll cage!" Liza protested, "And you better not have tested the roll cage with Chris in the car."

"He was fine." Anya stepped on the gas and drove east, past the empty spot for Travis' truck, hopefully they weren't getting themselves in trouble. She checked her watch, "By my estimation, Nick will be getting into the city sometime in the next ten minutes, meaning that he will have fifteen to get himself neck deep in trouble."

"That's more than enough time." Alicia rolled her eyes, "Trust me."

"I think we are all aware of how much trouble Nick can into in 2 minutes if he's left alone." Anya accelerated just a bit more. "Alicia stay with Baby. Chris stay in the car too. Liza you'll come with me if someone needs medical help. We are not there to help anyone, give information or dawdle. We get in, get the others and get the hell out. If anyone starts to follow us in a vehicle we won't go back to the house, we'll just drive out to the rendezvous point.

"What? No fair! Lisha and I are totally capable." Chris folded his arms over his chest, "This is bullshit."

"Watch your mouth young man." Liza warned him, "You are not going to throw yourself into the middle of a bad situation and make this worse."

He glared at his mother, "I wouldn't make it worse. I'm really good with a gun, right Aunt Anya?"

"I'm not getting into this with you." Anya glanced at him in the rear mirror, "You're guarding Baby, and you're going to thank your lucky stars I trust you that much."

Alicia had been quiet, rolling her eyes at Chris' whining, "Where should we meet if you can't get back to Baby?"

"Stick around for forty-five, or until you feel threatened. Then we meet at the rendezvous just like we planned." Anya grinned, "We should be back in fifteen or less though."

The tent city came into view slowly, almost looking like a mirage at first. As they came closer people slowly came into view, although there was something odd about it. At first there were only a few people wandering in between the tents and vehicles that were clumped together. But as they traveled further into the pop-up town there were larger groups of people. Some surrounding vehicles, others clustered around tents.

The oddest one though was a group of people surrounding a table with a radio blasting music, they just kept walking, bumping into each other and whatever else was in their way. No one was dancing, or singing. No one was drinking beer or shouting. They were just quietly walking into whatever was in their way. It was eerie and disturbing.

Anya kept driving past them, her eyes scanning for the remainder of their group. More than one head turned their way, empty eyes following them and soon shambling steps did the same. They gained a trail of people shuffling through the camp. No one was protecting their tents, or yelling when someone tripped over their water bottles.

"This place is freaking me out." Alicia mumbled. She'd been to a party or two courtesy of Matt, and none of them looked like this. Not even the homeless camps they drove past sometimes were this sedate.

Anya shifted in her seat, her grip on the steering wheel tightening. "Those people aren't alive anymore," she muttered. "Look sharp, avoid unneeded contact, and if someone refuses to back off shoot them, preferably in the fucking head."

Finally, well into the tent city, Anya spotted the truck and pulled over parking with enough space so they could get in and out without hitting each other, but still close enough to be able to make a quick transfer if needed. She jumped out, leaving the keys in the ignition, "Alicia if needed, you drive. Leave the gun alone. You'll hit someone living."

Once she got a nod from Alicia, Anya checked her weapons, "Liza, you have your knife?"

"Uh, yeah." Liza looked wary and unsure.

"Keep it ready, leave your pack here in the car. If they can't make it back to the car, they aren't going to make it back." Anya looked around and debated calling out. She didn't want to bring more attention to them, but there had been too much activity to follow tracks.

Deciding that it would take way too much time to follow them, Anya sighed. "Clark. Manawa." She spoke quietly. She listened and couldn't hear anything over the music blasting down the road.

She glanced around, a few of the...walkers were getting closer, focused on the vehicle and them. Moving away down the road Anya called out louder, better to have those things coming after her and not surrounding Baby. They were slow enough she and Liza could outrun them.

Finally she could hear the sound of a fight. There was nothing to indicate it could be the others, but it was a direction to go in. Moving down the road she started to cut through the tents and could finally see the fight taking place. Nick was on the ground, it looked like he had been thoroughly beaten and we wasn't moving much. Travis was pushing some guy around, badly, while Madison hovered over Nick, it looked like she was trying to protect him with her body. Stupid woman probably left her weapon in the truck. Or forgot she it.

"Hey!" Anya yelled as she came up within reaching distance. Everyone turned to focus on her and stopped. Whether it was her don't fuck with me attitude, or just that she bothered to interrupt, they all rotated to orient around her.

"What do you want?" One of them, the biggest, asked.

"I want those three, then I want to leave." Anya responded, not intimidated in the slightest.

"This one," The speaker jabbed a finger at Nick, "had been raiding people's tents taking shit."

Anya sighed and leveled a look at Nick, "Anything he took, you can keep. We just want to walk away." Anya shifted her stance, the others had relaxed. "No harm, no foul. We're just gone."

Nick started to protest, fighting Madison over him. Travis moved away from the group and reached down grabbing hold of Nick, hauling him up as Madison moved away from him. "No! It's Mine!" Nick protested, fighting the hold.

Anya rolled her eyes and walked over to him. She began searching him and started pulling out prescription bottles and a bag of powder. Anya tossed them onto the ground behind her. "Here, you keep that and we walk away. We good?" Anya asked.

There was a pause as there was a silent conversation between the other group. Finally, the big guy nodded, "Get out of here, we see him around here again and I'll kill him."

Anya motioned to the others to walk past her while she stayed focused on the others, waiting until they had some distance on her before she turned around and started to follow. Anya urged them to move quickly back to the truck where the others were waiting to avoid the walkers coming towards them.

They made it back to the road when Nick finally managed to rip himself away and began running. In the fucking opposite direction of the vehicles of course.

"Nick!" Madison yelled, trying to grab at him again.

Nick just kept going, not paying attention, but he was clumsy and kept tripping into tents and cars. He was making a racket and drawing even more attention. Anya took off after him, the others on her heels. Nick stumbled into a tent and partially collapsed it, getting caught and tangled in the canvas. Anya reached over and hauled him out to the growing rumble of growls and snarls.

"Oh shit, what is wrong with them?" Travis asked, eyes focused on two people whose eyes were riveted on them.

Anya looked up, "Dead." It was the only reply she needed to give. She looked at Nick and shook him, he was so light she was able to use enough force to make his teeth clack together. "You run again and I leave you for them."

Anya pulled him around and started pushing Nick forward, keeping her grip tight on her collar. She didn't trust him not to try and take off again.

Rounding the corner between one tent and the next Anya paused "Fuck." There was a group of fifteen dead right in front of them, only two behind them. "Go back, just avoid those two. Move" Anya barked at the others. Feeling hands just barely brushing her shoulders as she pushed Nick ahead of her.

By the truck Madison and Travis watched in horror as Anya and Nick were trapped between multiple groups of infected, groaning and getting close enough to touch Anya's arms and back. "Oh my god," Liza turned to the truck and grabbed Madison's shotgun from the bed. She ran at the group and once she was ten feet away, Liza stopped and braced herself and the gun, took aim, and shot.

The deershot spread out far enough to catch two with the first shot who fell and crashed into some of the others. Anya ducked instinctively, yanking Nick down with her and turned to see Liza lining up her next shot. "Badass." She grinned, pulling the knife from her thigh holster and put it through the brain of the dead guy standing over them.

Liza shot three more with her next shell and backed up towards the truck as the crowd started following her. She popped the weapon open after a moment and let the shells fall among the rest of the debris on the ground.

Anya took that moment of distraction for what it was and dropped two more in close range. With the group so scattered Anya started pulling Nick around the side, keeping a firm hold of his collar until she was sure he was tied into the damn truck.

Liza scrambled to move backwards and keep an eye on the group and reload her shotgun when lightning shot up her leg. Liza fell back onto a heap of wood scraps and scattered glass. She looked down to see a large shard of glass in the bottom of her foot, then she realized. She looked up and saw four of them standing over her, bending down to grab her.

Travis yelled and ran at them, shoving two aside and trying to get between Liza and the infected trying to get to her. "You stay away from her and nobody gets hurt!" Anya took a quick detour to help Liza, Nick still stumbling after her.

Anya came up behind the group and stabbed one in the head before slinging Nick at Madison by the truck. "Get that disaster in the truck!" Anya ducked under a swing from one of the dead, "They aren't going to stay away Travis, man up or back off."

One of them fell on top of Liza in the chaos and she screamed, beating at him with the shotgun. Travis kicked the guy with a roar and tackled him, beating his face to a bloody pulp, not even stopping when the guy stopped moving. Anya handled the last two and pulled Liza to her feet. "Travis come on!"

"Travis stop it!" Madison shouted, "Travis, we need to go!"

He sat back breathing hard, looking around in confusion. Slowly their voices filtered into his mind and Travis stood up, backing towards the truck. Everything was hazy, but he needed to get back to the truck. He climbed into the passenger seat and watched Anya moving around and yelling at people, at him.

Anya put Liza in the bed of the truck, "You go to the rendezvous, I will meet you there!" She looked over her shoulder at the growing horde of dead congregating towards them, following the noise of their yelling and the gunshots.

"Go!" She shouted, not waiting past the moment that Madison turned on the truck before racing back to Baby. She wasn't sure what she was going to find, and every minute in this damn tent city feels more and more like a minefield.

Alicia was already moving into the backseat when Anya got to Baby and ripped the door open with a bit of a wince. She'd have to check the hinges later. Putting the car into gear she ignored Chris yelling questions about his mom and just focused on driving.

Anya didn't start breathing again until the tent city was gone from the rear view mirror. She looked to Alicia and Chris, "Okay, report. We got Nick back, he's in the truck with the mom squad. Everyone's okay I think. We're meeting up at the rendezvous and we'll know more then. Anything happen here while we were gone?"

"No, it was quiet. A few...people or whatever walked by, but they ignored us once the yelling started." Alicia responded, finally settling back into her seat.

Anya nodded her head, she had hoped they would be left alone. And it was good to know the walkers had moved elsewhere when noise started. That could be useful. For now though, they had thirty miles between them and their meet-up.

Anya pulled into the parking lot of the Motel 8, the only vehicle there was Travis' truck, and it was empty. Anya pulled into the spot right next to the truck, and jumped out. She reached into the back and grabbed her go bag gesturing for Chris and Alicia to do the same. She walked up to the door directly in front of the truck and peered into the window.

Madison was sitting on the bed next to Liza who was laying down. Travis came back in with a frown on his face and a bowl of water with a washcloth on the edge of it. Anya closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, Travis looked constipated and that could only mean that something is very wrong.

"What's wrong?" The question almost a statement. Anya dropped her bag by the door and moved out of the doorway so the kids could get inside.

"There's nobody at the front desk. We forced the door." Travis paused at a grunt from Nick, "Fine, Nick forced the door. Can you get another room open?"

Anya narrowed her eyes, it was obvious that Travis was avoiding the question. "Nick, get another room open. You obviously know how to do it."

Nick nodded and left grabbing his bag before pushing between Alicia and Chris to get out of the room. After a nod from Anya the two kids hauled around and followed him out of the room. "We'll be in 108," Nick called over his shoulder.

Anya reached behind her and hit the door closed. "What is it, Travis?"

"I got bit," Liza whispered, refusing to look up.

Anya froze for a second, "Fuck."

"Yeah."

"It's not a big deal, a few antibiotics and this'll be taken care of, right?" Travis asked, his voice strained with hope.

Anya and Liza just looked at him.

"Are you really sure about this stuff Anya?" Madison asked, her voice calm.

"Yeah, I'd trust the guy who gave me the info to hold a gun to my head, I trust him with this."

"So I guess the only question left is who's gonna do it then." Liza looked around at all their faces.

"Do what?" Travis asked his voice rising.

The three women looked at each other, Travis was the only one fighting it. "If she turns into one of them she will attack us. We can't let that happen." Anya sighed.

"I'd rather you do it before I have a chance to hurt Chris." Liza reached up and grabbed Travis' arm. "You don't have to be the one to do it." Liza turned to Anya her eyes pleading. A single nod from Anya had her relaxing but Travis immediately tensed up.

"No! You are not killing my her!" Travis protested, "She hasn't done anything!"

"I haven't done anything yet, Travis," Liza tugged on his arm again, "I am going to die, and when I do I won't care about anything, even hurting Chris. I can't be allowed to do that."

"Travis just, just let me talk to her." Anya reassured him, "Give us a minute?"

"No." Travis refused firmly, "You'll do it as soon as I walk out of the room. You aren't killing her."

"No I'm not." Anya took a deep breath and slammed his head into the door frame. "I'm obeying her last wish you idiot." She muttered as he dropped. "You married a lightweight Liza."

Liza bursted into laughter before the seriousness of the situation set in, "Thanks. Just.."

"I won't let the kids see." Anya promised, offering Liza her hand, "Come on, you deserve something a little less depressing than this room for saving our asses."

Liza took her hand and the two of them took a walk. It was slow but neither of them mentioned it, mentioned Liza's limp. They went around the back of the motel to a little hill that overlooked the mountains, all foggy in the distance. "It's no sunset, but it's better than paisley." Anya shrugged.

Liza smiled a little and nodded, "Thank you, for doing this. For taking care of Travis and the others. I know it's-it's not what you wanted but-"

"Hey," Anya stopped her, "I may be a selfish bitch spending more on my car than my own family, but taking care of people is what I do. It's in the blood. I'll take care of them."

"Just don't forget to let them take care of you, yeah?" Liza cupped Anya's cheek, "Don't forget you're important too."

"I won't." Anya looked down. Liza looked away to the mountains and Anya took measured breaths, knife in hand. It was quick, and Anya caught her body before it hit the ground. "Sorry Liza, you were one of the good ones." She set Liza down carefully and looked around, trying to think of the best way to take care of her, to keep her promise.

The gasoline lit up rather quickly, burning hot and hopefully killing off anything and everything inside the body. It felt wrong, against her fundamental instincts to not put Liza in the ground, but quarantine protocol… And this way none of the kids would have to see.

Anya waited for the fire to burn out before returning with a grim look on her face and Liza's cross and watch in her hand.


	13. 13 Dude, Where's my car?

**Dude! What's mine say?**  
 **Sweet! What's mine say?**  
 **Dude! It says that bitch just stole my coffee machine and now I'm fighting the home-owner's association over whether or not a moat fits inside the 'reasonable landscaping' clause of our contract.**  
 **...Sweet.**

"I need foooooood!" Raven whined from her spot on the sofa cushions.

"Rae! If you don't fucking stop whining I'm going to ram this can of soup up your ass!" Elyza slammed the can down on the countertop. She opened the soup with aggressive twists on the can opener. "I love you, but I'm seriously ready to drag your ass outside and leave it for the fucking dead!"

"I can't move!" Raven yelled back, "I have been stuck on these stupid cushions for the last 4 fucking days. I can't even use the damn bathroom without help!" Raven flopped back on the cushions, they had laid them out on the floor after their run from the mall had made her back seize up.

Elyza sighed, being stuck was hard on Raven and this had been miserable. At least she had books to read to sort of occupy her. "I'm working on food, and you should be working on those exercises that the PT taught you."

"I never did those exercises, they were stupid." Raven mumbled.

"I don't care if they are stupid. Do them, and then when you can walk on you own, you can stop bitching at me everytime you want something." Elyza began pulling out bowls, spoons and crackers for their lunch.

"If I do them will you rub my back afterward?" Raven begged, giving Elyza the biggest puppy-dog eyes she could manage.

Elyza almost refused, it had been a long few days stuck in the store with Raven, but she had been in a lot of pain and the back rub would help. "Fine, but food will be done soon." She checked the soup, it needed a few more minutes.

Elyza ducked under the counter and walked over to Raven, crouching down beside her. Elyza pulled Grandma Reyes' quilt over and rolled it up before helping Raven move into a seated position. Raven had avoided mentioning the pain she was in for a few hours after they got back from the mall, but by the time Elyza's freakout was completely over, Raven couldn't bend her leg.

They had worked together that night trying to stretch out her back, and rub the soreness from her muscles. She had been able to do her own sponge bath before they went to sleep, but by the time she woke up the next morning, Raven couldn't even sit up without help. It had taken time and a few bruises to get her downstairs, using the blanket to help pull her forward across each stair so her butt could drop down onto the next stair. Once she was down they had decided not to try to get her back up and Elyza had gone up and thrown down all of the sofa cushions, so they could sleep on something vaguely comfortable.

After a lunch of soup (again) and both the exercises and a back rub, Raven was once again able to move around the store, but only while leaning on Elyza for assistance. "It's a good thing you're skinny Rae, otherwise this would be really fucking difficult." Elyza commented as they hobbled around the store.

"I'd collapse if I had to haul your assets around," Raven agreed with a sage nod.

"You can haul around car engines, but you think _I'd_ be too heavy for you," Elyza hip checked Raven, making the other girls leg buckle. "Oh shit, I forgot," Elyza pulled to keep Raven from completely tipping over.

"Well thank god someone forgot." Raven grouched, "It would suck if both of us have to remember I'm useless."

"You aren't useless Rae."

Behind them, they heard the familiar cocking of a shotgun. "I dunno, I would say she's pretty useless. I heard you yelling from half a block away." The girls raised their hands and turned around to face a big guy. Not like fullback, but definitely gym rat meets gangbanger kind of guy.

The least badass thing about this guy's sawed off shotgun and leather clad exterior was the mop of blonde hair that looked like his mom cut it in the dark with a butter knife. "Well fuck, I would tap that in another apocalypse. You know, the one where you didn't use a blender to complement your salon experience." Raven joked.

Elyza bit her lip, trying not to laugh. "Probably not the best time Rae."

This guy was neither amused, nor insulted. He knew what happened to his hair, it wasn't good. But on to more important things, "I'm taking your shit." He informed them, "I'm not a total monster, so you can take whatever the fuck is in your packs, but the food, water and everything else is mine."

"Just our luck, a philanthropist." Elyza glared, "Can we have a few minutes to put our clothes in our bags?"

He pursed his lips, "Five minutes." He stretched out his arm to reveal his watch, "Starting now."

"Wha-you fucker!" Raven snapped. He looked down at his watch pointedly and Elyza started moving.

"Stay, I'll get our stuff and toss it over the balcony." Elyza jogged upstairs to shove all of their things into bags as best she could while Raven glared daggers at the invader.

"You're a real fucking hero you know that? Stealing shit from a cripple. A female cripple. I hope you electrocute yourself on the coffee machine."

"There's a working coffee machine?" His eyebrows disappeared into his roughly chopped bangs, "Shit, I wouldn't mind going out like that if there's a cup of hot coffee in it for me." He glanced down at his watch, "Two minutes princess."

"WHY DOES EVERYONE USE THAT STUPID FUCKING NICKNAME?!"

"It's easy honey." Raven called up, "You just have that rapunzel screwed sleeping beauty look."

"I don't even know what that means, and I hope I never do." Elyza called.

The guy shrugged, "Sounds like a good time."

"Finally someone understands!" Raven gestured at the guy.

"Yeah, if only that someone weren't taking our bookstore and all the food we just fucking found. What a miracle we found him." Elyza snarked, throwing three packs over the balcony. She had the fourth slung over her back, it was the one full of their candles, bodywash and other items that wouldn't do well getting chucked fifteen feet to a hardwood ending. "I hope you hate it here." Elyza glared at the guy, packing on two more backpacks. Normally she would make Raven carry half of them, but with how screwed up she was, it was going to be hard for Rae to move at all, let alone loaded down with shit.

"Thanks ladies." He stepped away from the door, "I wish you the best of luck out there." He gestured to the door with his gun, patiently escorting them out. As soon as their feet were over the threshold, he slammed the reinforced door on their asses, almost knocking Elyza over.

"Fuck you! I made that goddamn door!" Raven shouted, "Come on." She muttered to Elyza, resting a hand on Elyza's shoulder, "Let's find a car that still works."

"Did you leave the battery in any of them?" Elyza looked at the cars with their hoods still propped open.

"Come on," Raven rolled her eyes, "I only took like six."

"Well you're the car genius, you lead the way." Elyza gestured towards more parked cars, one of the packs started sliding and she had to catch it before they all started.

"That one should be fine." Raven gestured at a sedan, looking rather bummed. She limped her way over, trying not to rest her weight too heavily on Elyza. She yanked the hood up and checked for any damage to the interior. "Oh baby you are rough." Raven winced and put the hood back down.

"She looks like the front yard of a frat party." Raven shook her head and tried the doors. Luckily the door behind the driver's was unlocked and Raven was able to wiggle squirm her way into the front seat with a plethora of cussing and gasping that per her usual very much crossed the line into awkwardness.

"Raven you know I could have done that right?" Elyza asked through the window on the driver's door.

Raven glared at her through tempered glass and unlocked the door, "Shut up." She was caught upside-down and half-way through a barrel roll with her head under the wheel. "It's easier this way anyway. Just stay out of my light while I work."

"I'm going to throw this crap in the back." Elyza started slinging packs onto the floor of the backseat.

"Just don't bury my legs, I have no fucking clue how I'm getting out of here without a concussion."

Elyza didn't comment on that, deciding that Raven needed a few minutes to be independent. She had been chafing at her dependance on Elyza pretty much from the moment she realized she couldn't get off the couch. Raven needed a chance to do something by herself, even if it did cause her a few more aches and pains in the morning.

Elyza crawled into the backseat angling herself underneath Raven's legs. What idiot leaves the backseat door unlocked, but locks the front doors? She finally wiggled herself across and was able to reach the lock and flip it. Elyza pulled herself closer to the door managing to knock herself into Raven's leg earning a few cusses and an almost kick. Opening the door she moved up and finally sat down in the passenger seat, still slumped to the side to avoid Raven's body.

"There you are!" Raven exclaimed as the engine kicked to life. "Now to get out of this shithole."

"Anything you want me to do?" Elyza asked, worried about Raven, but trying to give her space.

"Nah, I got this shit." Raven reached up by her head and pulled the handle to pop the door open, she slid a bit with a grunt once she no longer had it to support her. The oh-shit handle gave her the leverage she needed to haul her body out of the barrel roll with only a few kicks to Elyza's head and shoulder.

Like a greased elephant baby, Raven slid out onto the pavement with the metallic clack of her leg brace on the road. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, "That went better than expected."

Elyza nodded and looked over Raven's shoulder. "Raven!"

Raven turned around in time to see Mr. Rope latch onto her right arm with both hands and drag himself towards her. "Oh shit!" Raven tried to yank her arm out of his grasp only to end up flat on her back with the top-half of their neighbor growling at her.

She braced a hand on his forehead, scrambling backwards into the car, trying to pry herself out of his iron grip without getting bitten. Elyza yanked at the handle for her door, struggling to get the janky latch to open with her eyes turned towards Raven's struggle. In hindsight she probably could have opened the door if she simply spent more time looking at the task at hand.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Raven shouted, getting a firm grip on his hair and ripping her hand out of his grip, taking a rotting finger with her. As soon as her arm was free, so was Mr. Rope free to grab her shoulders and start pulling her in. "I fed you fucking crackers!" She punched him in the eye, feeling her knuckles split and his head begin to cave under her hand.

Elyza finally got her door open and started running around the car to help.

"I am not gonna die to roadkill!" Raven grabbed for the knife the Black Commando gave her right as Mr. Rope's hair ripped free of his head. Elyza made it to them just in time to see Mr. Rope land on Raven's shoulder. Raven let out a yell and slammed her knife into his skull at nearly the same moment.

"Are you ok? Raven?" Elyza cried in a panic, her heart racing.

Raven shoved their rather ungrateful neighbor's corpse off of herself and looked down, "I don't think so?" She tugged at her shirt and gasped, "Motherfucker!"

"What? Did you get bit?"

"No, that asshole ripped my shirt!"

Elyza chuckled a little, "Don't worry Rae, we'll go raid a new store and get you a new one. I'll get the most expensive shirt in the whole store.

Rae nodded, "Thanks…" She looked down at the mess of herself and Mr. Rope. "I uh, That was…"

"Do I need to hold your hair while you throw up?" Elyza smirked a bit, trying to distract Raven from the ick factor.

"Fuck off." Raven braced herself on the frame of the car and pushed herself up into the driver's seat to give herself a bit of distance from it all. "We should, we should go." She looked pale.

"Let me get into the back and get you a clean shirt." Elyza pulled open the backseat door and began rummaging around. Pulling out a t-shirt she handed it to Raven. "We really need to find some baby wipes or something if this keeps happening."

"Yeah, sounds good." Raven changed in a bit of a daze, discarding her torn shirt on the road next to Mr. Rope. The handle of the knife caught her eye, "Hey, Lyza can you get me that back?" She gestured to his head, "It's our only weapon right now."

Elyza bent down and got the knife, wiping it down on the shirt Raven had just thrown. Once it was mostly clean, certainly chunk-free, she handed it over to Raven who was fully dressed once again. "Do you want me to drive?"

"No, I'm good." Raven put the knife back into its sheath on her hip and sat back in her chair, "Get in."

Elyza went back to the passenger side of the car and got herself situated. "So where to now?"

"I have no fucking clue. What do you think?" Raven sighed.

"Well, still want to avoid people. And apparently we need a lot of space so assholes don't hear us and kick us out." Elyza leaned back against the seat.

"Or a better fucking door." Raven muttered, "I vote no glass doors."

"And maybe something better than a sofa to sleep on, that'd be nice." Elyza suggested.

"Okay, this is starting to sound like a house, yeah? Like a normal house. Im hearing suburbia call my name."

"I don't really care where we go, I just want a real bed and a shower." Elyza shrugged her shoulders, "Also food. Food would be good since that asshole kept all of ours. It took forever to haul all of that from the store too."

"Well maybe someone left some shit in their house. God knows we left a couple of packs of ramen in the apartment."

"I'd eat Ramen right now." Elyza practically salivated, it hadn't even been that long since lunch.

"See? Now you get it." Raven grinned, "You never know when your last meal is gonna be." She nodded sagely at her own advice.

"I wish I had known that steak was going to be my last, I would've eaten it until I burst." Elyza almost groaned. "So do you have any ideas where to go? Or should we just drive til we find something?"

"I was going more for that second option if we're being real here." Raven stuck her hand out the window to enjoy the breeze.

"Hey, can you pull over here." Elyza pointed to a cluster of buildings.

"Uh, yeah sure." Raven stopped in the middle of the road, "You need a tanning salon or something?" She teased.

Elyza rolled her eyes, "No, come with me and bring one of the empty bags." Elyza got out of the car and started towards one of the doors.

"Sure thing." Raven turned one of their bags upside down and shook it out into the backseat. "Perfect." She climbed out with a huge grin, "I've always wanted to park in the middle of the road."

"So glad we could fulfill a wish, Rae." Elyza gestured to the door in front of her. "Can you get this door open?"

"Have you met me?" Raven drew her knife and used it to jimmy the door open, "Voila."

"I could have done that," Elyza squinted her eyes, and then pulled the door open. She walked into a waiting room filled with stiff looking chairs and end tables littered with ancient magazines. "Let's see if we can find anything useful here, but especially the medicine cupboard."

"Bro, this is some family doctor, all we're going to find is a bunch of mags for a fire." Raven gestured at the pile of tabloids and colored in kids magazines, "Like, why are we even here?"

Alcohol swabs, clean needles, bandaids, gauze," Elyza ticked each item off on her fingers, "and if we're really lucky they'll have some useful medicine samples."

Raven put her hands up, "Okay, my bad. I'll go raid the bandaids and shit." She pushed past the front desk and started digging through the cabinets in the patient rooms.

Elyza wandered behind the receptionists desks, opening every cupboard she could. Most of them were filled with office supplies or personal items, which provided a few cups o' noodles and some candy bars. Halfway through she found a cabinet that was locked and used a thick letter opener to jimmy it open the way Raven had done the front door.

This cabinet contained rubbing alcohol, silver nitrate sticks and a variety of creams. Elyza grabbed as many as she could carry and hauled them towards the back offices, surely someone had left a bag or a grocery sack.

Elyza walked to the very back of the building and found the kitchen and grinned. With her armload of stuff dumped onto the table she rummaged through all of the cabinets and set everything useful on the table with her stash of supplies. Canned food, snacks and tons of condiment packages, along with a few grocery sacks to haul it all in.

"Hey, do we need popsicle sticks? There's enough to build a taj mahal in here. Like full scale."

"Not really, I'm not inspecting your tonsils." Elyza made a grossed out face. "Did you finish up the patient rooms?"

"Yeah." Raven came in with a few bags of cotton balls, gauze and some stitch kits. "I left the bandaids behind, I figure if it's that small we can just suck it up."

"Yeah that's fine. We need to raid the Dr's offices and the nurses stations next." Elyza looked up from where she was loading bags. "Which do you want?"

"I'll take the office, breaking and entering is my middle name after all." Raven grinned, starting to shake some of the funk from before. "You have fun with the nurses." She winked.

Elyza dropped the bags off by the door to the front and went back to the nurses desks. Once again most of the cabinets didn't have much that was useful. Elyza finally found what she had been looking for since they walked in the front door, a tall cabinet locked with a combination lock. She disassembled a lamp and used that bar to wedge into the body of the lock, one quick twist and it popped open.

Elyza grinned, the locker was full of medicine samples. She started sorting through the boxes, they didn't need cholesterol meds or stuff for blood sugar. But there were a few boxes of antibiotics, not that she'd ever heard of ZEMDRI before. Grabbing the last few boxes, pains meds, muscle relaxers and sleep aids, Elyza went to find Raven.

Raven was sitting in the front waiting room rubbing at her leg when Elyza walked up and handed her a box. "Take these, follow the directions on the box."

Raven took the box and narrowed her eyes at Elyza, "We didn't make this stop for bandaids did we?"

"I hoped," Elyza shrugged and grinned.

"You're lucky you're family." Raven grouched, checking the dosage before taking her pills. "Otherwise I'd have to punch you."

"I could take them back." Elyza raised her eyebrows.

"Fight me." Raven stuck her tongue out.

"If I took them back it wouldn't be much of a fight, just give it a few hours and when you need help walking to the bathroom I could just push you over and win." Elyza grabbed as many bags as she could manage, ready to head back to the car.

"Bitch!" Raven called, hobbling after Elyza with the rest of the bags. "You're not wrong, but you're still a bitch."

"Just get in the car and drive and be happy when those muscle relaxers kick in." Elyza slammed the door shut.

"Amen." Raven chucked her stuff in the back and climbed in. "Let's find somewhere to hole up before the back seat gets any worse. It's starting to look like Mama Lex's house back there."

Elyza glanced in the back, "True." Her house was always a disaster.

Raven headed for the western edge of town, and once the front lawns were larger than a postage stamp she slowed down a bit, "House hunting time. You have an opinion on color? I'm thinking we start with green doors and move from there." She smirked.

Elyza chuckled a bit, "How about that one with the tall brick and metal fence?" Elyza pointed it out.

"Fucking pragmatist, that place is uglier than a half shaved dog."

"But still better than the assholes haircut." Elyza rolled her eyes.

"How about that one?" She pointed to a cute little cottage with giant bay windows.

"Weren't glass doors out on your list? How are those windows any better?" Elyza asked.

"It's better than that eyesore." Raven turned the car up the hill where the yards got bigger along with the houses.

"You aren't going to be looking at it, you'll be sleeping in it." Elyza slumped back into her seat.

"I'll take brick, I'll take metal, but we are not living in a place that looks like a mini prison."

"Whatever bitch." Elyza inspected the houses they were driving past.

"How about this one?" Raven stopped in front of a smaller house with stone facing on the front and a sturdy iron fence. "It isn't chain link, but it should be good enough. Small windows too."

"Yeah it's fine." Elyza leaned forward in her seat, "Congrats on becoming a real estate agent."

"Uhh, yeah I'm pretty sure this place was awful for the market." Raven snorted, "Too small a house and way too much yard, not to mention you can see through the fence. Any mess in the backyard is gonna have the HOA all up in our grill."

"Yeah, that's totally my worry, good thing I'm not dropping a couple hundred thousand on this place." Elyza stared at Raven a little weirded out.

Raven ducked her head, "Okay, maybe I watched house hunters a few too many times during finals last semester. I needed something to binge watch."

"And you couldn't come up with something better than house hunters?" Elyza asked, incredulous.

"..." Raven opened her door, "Let's check it out."

"If there's anyone in there, we leave." Elyza checked,

"Yeah totally." Raven nodded, "Let's leave out packs in the car until we know it's clear."

As they reached the front door Elyza reached up and rang the doorbell. A couple of loud knocks also got no answer, so Elyza moved to the side so that Raven could get the front door open. "You're going to have to teach me how to do this someday."

"It's really not that hard." Raven pulled out her knife, "You just slide the tip behind the latch and pull it toward you, that disengages it, and the door pops open." She pulled the door open, "It's a lot better with a sturdy knife or a screwdriver. The thinner your tool, the less damage you do." She pointed to the scuff marks on the lock.

"What do you do if there's a deadbolt?" Elyza asked.

"Break a window." Raven snorted. "They're a bitch to open without just breaking down the damn door. It's easier to board up a window than to fix the door."

"Yeah, ok." Elyza walked inside, "HELLO! ANYBODY HOME?!"

Raven laughed, "Dude I think between the doorbell and the knocking, we would have known if there was someone here." She walked into the kitchen and started rifling through the cupboards, "I found hot cocoa mix? That's like food right?"

"It'll count when one of us hits our period." Elyza nodded.

"Oh shit." Raven looked like Christmas was cancelled, and while technically Christmas is cancelled forever now, it really hit Raven. "We have to find shit for that. Like, we HAVE to find shit for that."

"You really didn't even think about it? I've been dreading it for five days, I'm supposed to hit next week." Elyza complained.

"Uh," Raven rubbed the back of her neck, "I just don't really pay attention to it until I suddenly realize it's been a while, and within a few days I usually start. Except that one time, I was paranoid for two weeks, and or two weeks late." Raven narrowed her eyes in thought, "I was probably just paranoid."

"Oh fuck. I'm not going to be able to keep track on my phone anymore." Elyza looked horrified. "This is going to be hell." Elyza shook her head and took off to look through the rest of the house.

"No running water, but there's three bedrooms back there and they all have _real_ beds."

"Dibs on the master." Elyza grinned, running to the back to claim her room before Raven could stop her.

"Racing a cripple?" Raven shouted, "I thought your mother taught you better than that!"

"Not when it comes to getting the best bed in the house!" Elyza grinned.

"Yeah the one with the most strangers screwing around in it!" Raven called back, "And there's no laundry machine to make you feel better." She opened one of the other doors and found a pretty standard room, double bed and a computer desk. It wasn't great, but it would do her just fine.

"Raven that's gross!" Elyza shuddered, "I'm going to grab our stuff from the car. I wouldn't want someone to take it while we're in here."

"Good idea, I'll be out to help in a minute."


	14. 14 It's my Goddamn Moat

**Guests, problems, problems with guests... But mostly just arguing over the damn moat.**

"So how do we prevent another asshole situation?" Elyza asked over their meal.

"What?" Raven looked up confused.

"That guy, this morning at the bookstore, he just walked in and took over and there wasn't a fucking thing we could do." Elyza looked around at the kitchen they were sitting in, "How do we prevent that shit from happening again."

"Okay, well it starts with locking the goddamn door." Raven shoveled more noodles in her mouth.

"Yeah cause that totally made things difficult for you." Elyza snarked.

She spread her arms, "Not everyone is going to be awesome! You didn't even let me finish." Raven gestured wildly with her fork, "I think we need to board up all of this glass shit, and then we put spikes on everything. Maybe a moat. I think we really need a moat. I vote we turn this bitch into a fucking castle."

Elyza's eyes has gotten big at the mention of boarding everything up, but at the moat they practically popped out of her head. "A Moat?" She spluttered.

"Hell yes a moat. A capital 'M' Moat, nobody is going to come walking in here if we have something stopping them from getting to the front door, and it's not like we have the materials to hide the fucking thing. Most people tend to have their doors on the front of the house right where the porch is… So yeah, not hideable."

"Wow. So Insightful," Elyza deadpanned. "I'm more concerned with how we," Elyza paused and looked at Raven's bum leg "are going to dig a damn moat."

"I have it all figured out." Raven grinned, leaning back in her chair. "We passed a Home Depot on our way here right?" She raised her eyebrows, looking almost as terrifying as she did the day… Elyza didn't want to think about that day. Let's just say that Raven is not allowed to touch blenders anymore.. Or vacuums.

"Yeeaaahhh?" Elyza drew it out, afraid of agreeing to something that she would regret in the near future.

"Well the Depot rents out backhoes." Raven's eyes gleamed with intent, "If I can build a rocket, I can figure out how to drive a backhoe."

"Shit, do you know how much I fucking hate Home Depot?" Elyza's shoulders had slumped a bit, she wasn't going to fight Raven's insanity.

"I mean, I can go alone and you can scavenge for fences to board up the windows with," Raven was having far too much fun with this, "Or! We can spend half an hour at the Depot with a truck, grab some plywood and a bobcat and tear this bitch up in an afternoon!" After a moment of Elyza saying nothing, Raven stuck her lip out in a pout and clasped her hands together. "..Please?"

"Fine, get your ass in the car." Elyza sighed in defeat.

The drive to Home Depot was short and uneventful, mostly filled with Elyza whining about the destination and the lack of music.

"First things first, help me get these doors open, I'll push left, you push right." Raven braced herself and wedged her fingers in between the doors that were just slightly ajar. "Put your back into it bitch."

The doors slowly slid open and Raven cackled with glee "Hello beautiful, Mama is here!"

"Can you stop flirting with the store long enough for us to get our stuff and go?" Elyza snapped.

"Oh sweet babies, don't listen to a word she says." Raven reassured the store, grabbing a giant cart on her way past the door. "Let's grab that plywood for you cranky pants, then I'll break into the office for the keys."

Elyza took a deep, dusty breath of musty air, "Why do I even have to be here?"

"So you can drive the car back." Raven sniffed. Enjoying the smell of wood pervading the air, "Duh."

"And what are you driving?"

"I am going to drive the most fundamentally american vehicle known to this earth, a truck." Raven smirked, "I'll hook it up to the trailer for the excavator and we'll be cruising out of here. Help me with this."

She gestured to the large panels of plywood and the two girls loaded up three panels, some hammers, a whole bucket of nails and a handsaw. "Okay, you want to take the little stuff to the car while I break into the rental office?"

Elyza nodded, "Yeah sure, anything to get me out of this godforsaken place."

Raven shook her head, "I love that the Depot is a godforsaken hellmouth, but a mall full of undead cannibals is an exciting afternoon."

Elyza stuck her tongue out, "Oh whatever. It's not like I knew it was full of dead people. You don't exactly expect to find those outside of a freaking cemetery."

"Well apparently the Depot is one of the safest places we've ever been to, because there's nobody here." Raven grinned, "I bet we could turn those diesels on in the back and no one would notice."

"You are probably the only person who would ever want to live out the end of the world in a Home Depot." Elyza called over her shoulder as she veered away out the door to load up the car.

"That's because I'm a genius." Raven mumbled to herself, shoving one of the screwdrivers she picked up into the seam between the door and the frame. She wasn't exactly keen on snapping their only knife just to prevent some damage to a random door.

"Who else would think to dig a moat, and fortify a coffee shop?" Raven nodded in agreement with herself as she started rummaging through the drawers in the desk, "Or using a backhoe to do all the hard work. But am I awesome? No, I'm crazy for liking access to all my favorite toys."

She shook her head and snagged a ring of keys from the bottom of a pile of old receipts, "God damn, these guys need a desk spike or something for these things." She tossed the receipts on the floor, just to make sure there wasn't anything else in there.

"Jackpot!" Raven snagged the Twix with a massive grin, "One point for Reyes, and Lex is at nil." She ripped it open and took a bite out of it while she meandered to the giant wooden case that obviously held the rental keys. "Now which of you bitches is gonna be my new baby?"

She traced a finger over the different labels for the keys and snagged one labeled 'truck' and another labeled 'Kubota 2.5-3t'. "That is my baby." Raven moved to leave and another label caught her eye.

Someone was walking behind her. Elyza probably. "Yo Lyza! These bitches have generators!" Raven shoved every set of keys for all the generators in her backpack and spun around to leave the office.

Elyza was standing right behind her. Raven bumped into her, her candybar falling to the ground. "Aw come on!" She crouched and grabbed it, blowing on the exposed chocolate.

"You found chocolate and you didn't tell me?" Elyza exclaimed, "Gimme that." She snatched the remaining half from Raven.

"Hey! That's mine!" Raven swiped at the chocolate.

"Not anymore it isn't." Elyza took a big bite out of the bar, "Now what were you saying about generators?" She said through a mouthful of chocolate.

Raven pouted, "They have them too, a couple are real decent low power alternatives to the car battery thing."

"If it means you won't blow something up so we can make coffee, I'm all for it." Elyza grinned.

"I haven't blown anything up yet." Raven huffed, "They keep the trucks in the back."

"We should grab all the snack stuff from by the registers before we leave. It may not be cold, but I wouldn't mind a soda." Elyza took the last bite of chocolate.

"Oh shit, I didn't even think of that!" Raven gasped, "Dude, if no one's raided this place we could have a year's supply of chocolate, or like, two weeks knowing you."

"Fair point." Elyza shrugged, "I wonder if there's a break room with a vending machine. You could break into one of those, right?"

"Oh hell yeah, they're the same as the ones in the school."

"We should check before we leave," Elyza followed Raven, "We would be terrible survivors if we left chocolate behind."

"We really would," Raven reached the trucks and tried the keys she had, they fit the second truck and she fired it up. "We need to get this hooked up to a trailer, I'll need you to guide me."

"Uhh, I've never done that before."

"Tab A goes to Slot B, you've done that more than once before, yeah?" Raven smirked.

Elyza blushed, "Okay, sex is a lot easier than getting two multi-ton machines hooked together so they don't fall apart in the middle of the freeway. I don't know about you, but my escapades in this department tend to stay within a ten foot radius of the starting point."

"Boring." Raven scoffed. "You've obviously been doing it wrong, so here's some practice."

"Oh my god." Elyza shook her head, "Whatever, I'm sure I'll figure it out. Just get in the damn truck." Elyza jogged over to the trailer where she could see what was happening.

Raven got herself lined up as best as she could on her own and looked back to where Elyza was standing and began to slowly back up. "Which way do I need to go?" She called back.

"You need to go that way like 3 inches," Elyza gestered left.

Raven made a small adjustment, hoping it was close and kept backing up. "Which way now?"

"Just keep coming, you look really close." Elyza hollered back. "Where do you want the ball thingy?"

"Ball thingy?" Raven laughed "I want it lined up right under the scoop thing." Raven rolled her eyes.

"Ok you've got like 6 more inches and then it's all in." Elyza replied.

"That's what he said." Raven joked.

Elyza snorted, busting into laughter while Raven finished lining up the truck. "Okay! Stop, stop! You're right there!" She giggled harder, "You're good." She shot Raven a thumbs-up, trying to keep herself upright.

Raven put the truck in park and walked back to join Elyza, giggling by the fender while she cranked the trailer hitch down over the ball. "Okay, so you fix it here with this latch, and then we attach the chains, and we don't give a fuck about extended signals." She grinned, "You load up the plywood into the trunk while I find our excavator."

"For my sister, you sure want me to spend a lot of time with your wood." Elyza snickered.

Raven laughed, "For real, I'm pretty sure its your wood at this point."

The girls split up a final time, loading the last of their supplies, and all the junk food they'd bagged from the front end. "Okay, you're good." Elyza gave the side of the truck a double tap, "I'll follow you back in the car."

"Awesome, I'll take her down to the lot exit while I wait."

Their drive home was uneventful, though there were quite a few dead in the streets they had to swing around. It felt like there were way more of them than when everything originally went down, and the noise from the truck drew them out so much more than the little janky car. Overall, they made it back without any followers and only an hour taken from their day.

Raven parked in front of the house and Elyza took the driveway. "Okay, you handle the groceries and windows while I take the moat?"

Elyza shook her head and grabbed a few bags, "I still can't believe you're digging a fucking moat."

"I think what you mean is that you can't believe you didn't think of it first." Raven teased, hopping out of her truck, "Besides, this makes you a real princess."

Elyza glared, "I fucking hate that nickname."

"And yet everyone uses it." Raven grinned, "Maybe you should try cutting off the princess hair and becoming less of a bitch."

"You'd be bored if I was less of a bitch," Elyza taunted, "And I'll cut off my hair the same time you do."

Raven stuck her tongue out and climbed up into the excavator, "Move your ass princess, I'm digging that moat now."

"I'm going, I'll be back in a bit." Elyza headed towards that door with her haul, "What windows do you want done?"

"The whole first floor?" Raven shrugged, "Maybe leave some slots for light or something? Or just the bottom half?"

Elyza nodded and continued into the house.

Raven got to work rather quickly, getting the hang of the controls and over the course of the afternoon she dug a four foot deep moat all around the house, leaving only the driveway untouched. The dirt from the moat was deposited in a rather large mound in front of the driveway, sloping the whole thing so they could use it like a ramp for the truck in a pinch. It also meant that anyone trying to drive in from the street would need to get out of their car, or skinny through the tight space Raven left for the truck to go through normally.

"RAVEN! How the hell am I supposed to get out of here?" Elyza yelled from her side of the moat.

Raven stopped the excavator and turned it off, "What?" She yelled back, her ears still ringing from the noise of the machinery.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET TO THE OTHER FUCKING SIDE?"

"Jump!" She joked. Upon seeing the look Elyza shot her, Raven lost the grin. "I left the driveway untouched, you can come out through the garage. I figure that way we'll hear it if another asshole tries to take our shit."

Elyza turned around and went into the garage coming out through the open door. "So I had a thought…" Elyza paused "How are we supposed to fill this moat? There's no running water."

"Okay moat is a strong word, I didn't mean to fill the damn thing with crocodiles and shit, I just don't want some dick walking in our front door again. Now no one can get in without us knowing. We can board up the other doors too and bottleneck it." Raven rolled her eyes at Elyza's ridiculousness. Who the hell _fills_ their moats theses days?

"And what's to prevent someone from jumping in with a ladder or some shit and climbing up the other side." Elyza asked, irritated.

"That's why we board up the doors!" Raven snapped, "Are you listening?"

"I still don't see how that helps. I can literally jump down there, climb out the other side and then walk in the damn front door. How is that helpful? I'm not even athletic!" Elyza argued.

"Clearly you can't because you had to yell at me for help!" Raven glared at Elyza for trying to tear holes in her perfectly good plan.

"I didn't want to get dirty you bitch." Elyza glared right back.

Raven snorted, "And you wonder why people call you a princess, it means we have a warning. The only reason that asshole beat us was because he got the jump on us. If we had known he was coming we could have speared him."

"Uh, Hello?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, you only talk bitch-" Raven's eyes went wide and she spun around, throwing herself into the excavator and turned it on in the time it took to, well… To jump into an excavator and turn it on. "Who the fuck are you?" She snapped, turning the machine towards the pair of invaders.

Elyza moved forward until she had a better view of the approaching pair.

The male of the pair took a step forward, pulling a tween girl behind his back. The very tween that had just spoken. "Hey, we aren't here for a fight, we just heard your-" He gestured at Raven's excavator, "And wanted to check it out."

"Congrats, you have officially checked it out, now check your asses out of my yard." Raven snapped, waving the arm of the bucket loader at them in a shooing motion.

The girl stepped forward from behind the man's back and looked at the two women in front of her "Do you have any food, or water you could share? We haven't been able to stop to eat since yesterday." She asked, "I'm Madi, by the way."

"Madi." The man put his hand on her shoulder, "Come on, we can find somewhere else to go, it's fine."

Raven's glare softened a little bit and she glanced to Elyza. They had a massive pile of snacky shit in the house that they didn't necessarily need all of it. Elyza nodded, "If you wait here, we can get something for you."

Raven turned off the excavator and hopped out of the cab with a wince. She'd spent too many hours sitting down for her hip to not flare up. "I see either of you trying to get into the house, I'll personally kick your asses." She threatened, pointing a finger at the guy and then Madi with raised eyebrows.

The guy nodded, "Of course, we aren't going to pull anything, I promise. I'm just trying to look out for the kid."

Elyza came back out of the house a bag in hand with a few water bottles and some food. "Here, this should get you going." Elyza slowly approached and handed the bag to Madi, keeping an eye on the guy behind her.

"Thank you." He said, "I'm Quint, I uh, I'm sorry for catching you by surprise." Quint seemed rather genuine, and the girl Madi nodded her agreement, already breaking into one of the chip bags.

"It happens. Thanks for not being an asshole." Raven snarked, her tone still a little sharp. She is not a fan of being caught off guard, not after this morning.

"What are you guys doing?" Madi asked looking around Raven at the moat she had dug.

"I'm making us a moat. I figure if you can't get to the door, you can't break in." She replied, puffing out her chest in pride at her amazingly awesome idea.

"How are you going to fill it in? You can totally jump in and climb out right now and get to the door." Madi looked confused.

"That's what I said!" Elyza exclaimed.

Raven huffed in exasperation, "Oh my god, it's a moat. Not every moat gets filled with water, and it's not any fucking harder to climb out than it is to swim."

"Then why are you doing it?" Quint raised an eyebrow, trying not to further antagonize Raven.

"Fuck you all!" Raven threw her arms up in the air, "It's fucking cool okay? We can put spikes in the bottom, or battery acid or anything we fucking want!"

"You just wanted to play with an excavator." Elyza accused Raven.

"And you just wanted to play with my wood all day." She pointed at Elyza. Quint and Madi got wide eyed. Quint in particular would have never, suspected. I mean, Raven isn't exactly feminine, but he'd never considered that the diminutive.. Uh, person, wasn't exactly the… He stopped that line of thought, realizing he was just digging a deeper hole than this Raven with her.. Their moat.

"I got to manhandle that damn plywood all by myself, trying to hold it up and nail it to the fucking wall. You got to sit out here in your little toy and play by yourself." Elyza jabbed her finger at Raven

Madi turned purple, she wasn't a hundred percent sure what she was hearing, but she was positive her parents would _not_ have approved it. "I thought we were talking about a moat?"

"So did I." Quint mumbled, looking rather alarmed. "You, uh, enjoy your… Whatever you're doing."

"What?" Elyza looked over at the duo she had forgotten were there, "We are talking about the moat."

"Duh," Raven agreed, "What did you think we were talking about?"

"Uh, your...uh," Quint gestures at Ravens...groin, "area."

Raven blinked, "My what now?"

Elyza bust out laughing, cackling hysterically until she fell on the ground. "He thinks!" She couldn't stop laughing.

"He thinks I-!" Raven looked down at herself and then up at Quint and joined Elyza, bending in half and clutching at her sides, "You!" She giggled, "You thought I had a dick!"

Madi looked away from the hysterical girls, distinctly uncomfortable looking. "It kinda sounded like it to me too," she defended Quint.

"No," Raven protested, "No I get it!" She waved her hand at the girl, giggling so hard it hurt, "I just-" She started laughing again, falling to a knee, "That's great!"

Quint looked at Madi and then to the two women on the ground, wondering if they were suffering from a mental break of some kind. Clearly they couldn't even hold a normal conversation without starting a fight, and potentially incapacitating themselves in one form or another. "Do-do you two need help?"

Elyza slowly picked herself up off the ground, wiping the tears that had streamed down her face as she laughed. "We need all sorts of help, but there's never been someone who could help the two of us."

Quint shook his initial reaction out of his head and blamed that particular mental slip on their rather perverted form of conversing. "I was thinking more with this house. It seems like you have a good thing here, and I would like to find a place where we don't have to be on the move all the time." He immediately threw up a hand to defend the idea, "We'll pull our own weight, Madi is really good at finding food and things, and I'm no weakling in a fight."

Elyza and Raven looked at each other, "We are trying to set ourselves up so we don't have to move around," Elyza confirmed.

Raven tilted her head, "I mean, we have the rooms to spare?" She offered. In part because there is a certain bond formed when someone makes you laugh so hard that it's difficult not to pee yourself. This is the kind of bond she shares now with both Madi and Quint.

"You don't have to keep us around long term, this is your place and I respect that." Quint said, "If after a day you want us gone, then so be it."

A short, silent conversation between Raven and Elyza lead them to turn and agree, a day-long trial. It was starting to get dark already anyway. They escorted Madi and Quint into the house showing them where the bedrooms were, offering a separate one to each of them. Raven and Elyza had shared a bedroom before, it was irritating but doable.

Quint was nothing but thankful for their hospitality, and Madi explored the house with pure curiosity. She was too young to really think about herself as a danger to Raven and Elyza, so for the most part, she saw it all like being invited to a friend's house for a sleepover.

A quick meal of canned beans and vegetables and everyone was ready for an early night. None of them had been able to sleep in a real bed for a week and it felt like a luxury.

No one bothered getting up before noon, and it felt amazing. Slowly everyone made their way to the kitchen, following the smell of coffee. Raven hooked up the machine to the small generator she grabbed just long enough to get their water hot and brewed black.

"Welcome to the end of the world." Raven mumbled, passing a mug to each of their newest people. Their awestruck faces were enough to convince her that the sacrifice of coffee was worth it.

Madi took a sip and wrinkled her nose a little bit, "Do we have any milk?" She asked without thinking.

"Fresh out, but I think we still have a thing of creamer." Raven dug through the backpack of miscellaneous food items she'd just thrown into a cabinet yesterday. "Aha!" She pulled out a small container of the stuff, "Don't say I never did anything for you." Raven took her chance to put a solid tablespoon of the stuff into her mug before handing it to Madi.

"You know you're going to have to get used to coffee without the creamer one day?" Elyza asked, sipping on her mug of black coffee.

"Nope, I'm going cold turkey as soon as we're out." Raven replied, humming into her cup, "Coffee without creamer is like cows without udders. Just plain unnatural."

"You mean it's the only way to drink coffee. Why dilute perfection?" Elyza raised her eyebrows.

"I dunno, like udders are freaky but so are cows without them." Raven shrugged, "It's a personal thing."

"See, and I think they'd look more normal without the udders. Like most other animals don't have their nipples hanging out all the time." Elyza considered.

Raven blinked slowly at Elyza, "I mean it depends how cold you are."

"We're in California, it's never that cold unless you are in the mall." Elyza shivered

"And yet," Raven gestured to Elyza and smirked into her coffee.

Quint choked on his coffee and though no one caught him looking, his blush and pointed stare at the counter said otherwise. That or he's actually a thirteen year old boy in a thirty year old man's body.

Elyza gave her a look, "I already warned you how close I am to that time of the month, I get horny."

Madi's eyes got really wide, "I'm still a kid you know," she scolded.

Raven looked at the kid and raised an eyebrow, "I dunno, you got balls."

"No I don't!" Madi protested.

Quint covered his face with his hands, "She means you're brave, why don't you get ready for the day."

"That's a good idea." Elyza nodded, "We should go out and check the nearby stores for food and water before it gets too hot outside."

Quint frowned and waved his hand, "We have plenty for now. You two did a lot of work yesterday, if you're too worried about it, I can check out the houses in the neighborhood this afternoon."

Elyza and Raven exchanged a glance, "Nah, we'll all go." Raven refused his offer. "Meet back here in better clothes."

He nodded, finishing his coffee and went upstairs to change, his steps a little heavier than they were this morning.

"That was...odd," Elyza commented as she listened to Quint walk upstairs.

"Mmmm," Raven nodded in agreement. "Let's get ready to go." She glanced up the stairs again.

A change of clothes and a few packs full of empty bags and they were ready to head out. "Priorities are water, food, meds, first aid stuff, and any weapons." Raven looked around at everyone, "Does anyone need anything specific?"

"Tampons." Elyza piped in.

Madi blushed, but nodded her agreement.

"Uh," Quint shifted in discomfort, "I don't know about Madi, but I could use some different clothes. And shoes, these ones are starting to fall apart."

"You can get those right Lyza?" Raven elbowed her, "You're an expert at gathering clothes right?" She smirked.

"I'm leaving your ass behind, if I get attacked by a group again." Elyza elbowed her back.

Raven snorted, "Fair enough."

"A group?" Madi asked, looking between the two older girls.

"Raven has a big mouth, and sometimes it draws in more of the," She paused, not quite sure how much Madi knew, "The infected. A group of them caught me with my shorts down last week."

"She knows they're dead." Quint added. "I don't really know what to call them though."

"Welp, dead seems like a good start." Raven threw in her two cents, "But honestly I like Ropelings too."

"What's a...Ropeling?" Madi looked confused.

"Long story short, they're sneaky bastards." Raven patted Madi on the head, "And I stab sneaky bastards now."

"Shouldn't we be focused on getting what we need?" Quint asked.

"What are you talking about?" Raven parked the car in the lot of what was a walmart, "This is focused, otherwise I'd be at Denny's. But not this one, this one is janky as fuck, we go to the one on Wallard street."

"You never go to the Denny's in the shitty part of town." Elyza told Madi as though sharing a vital nugget of information.

"Okay." Madi nodded with wide eyes. Elyza and Raven seemed like just the kind of crazy that could thrive in this environment, and while Madi doesn't understand everything they say and do, she gets the feeling they are good people.

"If we see other people in there, you know, living ones, we walk away and avoid them." Elyza instructed, "If someone comes after us we get out of there. Unless they're dead and then we can kill them. Also the rest of us really need weapons. Raven's knife isn't going to do much good."

Quint nodded, "I'm not exactly a fan of beating the dead up with my bare hands." He admitted.

"I don't know if I could kill one of them, even if they are already dead." Madi admitted looking down at her feet.

"You aren't going to." Quint put his hand on her shoulder, "We'll take care of you."

The front doors of the Walmart were wide open, junk and garbage littered the ground, "Yo! Any of you dead assholes in here?" Raven called, "Or living assholes? I'm just not a fan of assholes."

Raven's call was met with silence and the group started picking their way through the junk looking for their supplies. Clothing racks were mostly empty and had been tossed every which way. Shelves had been overturned, their contents tossed, damaged and outright destroyed.

"There's nothing here that we can use." Elyza kicked at an empty shelf. "Should we go check out the hunting section for weapons?"

"Why bother, all that's gonna be left are BB guns if we're lucky." Raven grouched, picking her way through the mess carefully, one wrong step and her ass would be stuck on the couch for another weak.

"Maybe there's some stuff in the pharmacy?" Madi offered, pointing to the clearly labeled section. "Most people would go for the behind the counter stuff right?"

"There might be a few things, we can check but the Pharmacy would've been the second thing people raided, right after the cash registers." Quint grouched.

"They don't put everything out right? Maybe there's a back with stuff in it?" Madi asked.

"Not with drugs." Raven pursed her lips, "But I'll bet a hundred bucks they have stuff from all the other sections of the store." She grinned.

"So we need to find the back and break in, yeah?" Elyza asked glancing around.

"Photo center back by the electronics." Quint pointed, "There's always a bunch of employees going in and out of there."

"Lead the way." Elyza gestured, a little surprised by him having something helpful to say. So far his commentary had left her with a lackluster impression of his abilities.

Quint nodded, straightened his back and led the way. He took them through the photo center and to beige double doors. Instead of bothering to let Raven unlock them, he just planted a kick below the handles, denting the door and knocking them open.

The girls followed him into the back a large open space that was almost as messy as the front clothing. "Well, there's clothes here, but good luck finding your size and shit."

"Grab what you need, I'm going to look over this way for other stuff." Elyza gestured.

The group separated, Quint and Madi sorting through the clothes piled haphazardly, Raven explored beyond the messy rectangle of clothing to the left. "Elyza," She said in a hushed tone, looking through a pair of double doors.

"Yeah?" Elyza asked, a little concerned.

"Get the truck." Raven grinned, opening the doors further so that Elyza could see the massive shelves of food, "We're gonna be eating cereal for a month."

"And beans and rice for the next decade after that." Elyza griped, before turning around and heading back out to the parking lot.

Raven turned back to the otherside of the walk, and found all sorts of merchandise. "I mean, did you want a treadmill?" Raven gestured, "Or a fucking trampoline? I'm pretty sure there's everything short of the kitchen sink in here." Raven kept sorting, finally finding a bunch of hunting and camping supplies. Using her knife, she tore through shrink wrap and cardboard to find everything they could want, short of a normal fucking world. "Hey Quint! Madi! I need help in here!"

Qunit and Madi came running, panic and fear on their faces. "Where is it? Is there more than one?" Quint yelled searching the space around Raven.

"You bet your ass there is! There must be a million of these things." She showed him the small kerosene tanks for camp stoves, "Somebody grab a pallet, we need to take this shit before someone else gets wise."

Someone knocked on the giant doors in the back by the truck depot, "Open up!" Elyza's muffled voice came from the other side, "I've got the truck!"

Quint jogged over and grabbed the handle, yanking the door up to show Elyza standing there.

"We are going to need something bigger than the truck, we shouldn't leave this stuff behind. Nobodies making new stuff for awhile." Raven called back.

Elyza glanced back over her shoulder, "Well you have to avoid a walking corpse, but if you can hotwire a semi, we've got three options."

"I can probably figure something out," Raven called. "I'll go work on that, why don't you start loading up a few pallets. All the camping supplies you can find, even if it seems stupid. Tools too. And then start in on the food and water. We'll fill the truck and the back of a semi up and we should be set for a while."

"I'll get to work loading up pallets." Quint grabbed a small jack with an empty pallet already on it and jogged over to the camping supplies, "Madi come help me with this, heavy stuff on bottom."

The girl did as she was told, happy to have something to do. Raven flashed Elyza a grin before leaving through the truck gates to find herself a semi-trailer. If this worked, they would be set.

Raven returned with her semi-trailer and red on her hands. It took a solid twenty minutes for her to back it up to the door properly, and she abandoned the attempt after she got it mostly lined up.

An hour later and both the semi and the truck were loaded up and ready to go. The previously loaded warehouse was now much clearer and didn't hold as many useful items for future raiders. It was a bit unfortunate, but they would be well fed for awhile.

Raven did take a few minutes to leave a couple of packs with an assortment of supplies in them, hopefully this time it would go better than Mr. Rope's crackers.

Raven parked the semi across the front driveway and hopped down. Her leg almost buckled when she hit the ground, but she recovered before anyone saw her. It might be a good idea to take a pain pill tonight before bed. Her leg had mostly recovered from the run at the mall, but it was still giving her more issues. This fucking leg was going to be a big problem.

"Hey Rae, are we unloading anything in there? Or just leaving it until we need it?" Elyza called from where she stood by the truck.

"I packed a padlock bigger than Quint so we would only have to unload whatever we needed."

Quint and Madi began hauling their new clothes and shoes into the house, both eager to change into new clothes. "I think we are probably good with what's in the truck for a little while, so why don't you lock that up and we can go in and make dinner." Elyza paused and cocked her head, "After you bring in a camp stove, those battery things freak me the fuck out."

Raven rolled her eyes, "You know they're perfectly safe." She made her way to the back of the truck with just a hint of a limp. She climbed into the back and came back with some canned soup and a camp stove. Raven took a moment longer than usual to decide how to get out of the truck, and that was really all Elyza needed to see.

"You're doing your exercises tonight." Elyza declared.

Raven just glared a bit before nodding. She handed Elyza a few of the cans and they made their way up the drive and into the house.

It had been another slow start morning, slow for everyone but Quint anyway. "What's all of this?" Elyza asked, looking at the massive pile of old pill bottles and prescriptions stacked on the dining room table.

"I did a little bit of scavenging." Quint shrugged, "We didn't find the medical supplies we wanted, so I went looking for them."

Raven came in the room behind Elyza, "What do you mean you went looking for them?"

Quint looked up from the stash, "We didn't get the medicine and first aid supplies we wanted yesterday at Walmart, so I went through a few of the houses on the street. This was what I managed to find."

"You fucking left without saying anything?" Raven demanded.

"Why would I need to say anything?" Quint rolled his eyes.

"Not to quote the obvious, but you could have died! You could have been seen!"

"What are you talking about?" Quint turned away from the protesting girls, "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"Maybe in a fucking bar fight, but this is people trying to eat you." Raven glared daggers at Quint, "Not to mention that you left us alone, and we don't bar fight. God, you're so fucking stupid, what if instead of fighting you, someone decided to follow you back here and kick in the door while you're off wandering the neighborhood!"

"It's fine, no one followed me and everyone was fine." Quint dismissed them. "You're worrying about nothing."

"Nothing is waking up and everyone is still tucked in their beds." Raven snapped, marching into the kitchen, shaking her head and muttering under her breath.

Elyza sighed, putting her head in her hand, "Just, don't do it again without telling someone."

Quint grumbled under his breath and continued sorting. "What's for breakfast?" He asked.

Elyza looked up, "Whatever the hell you get up and make for yourself."

Raven waited for Elyza to look at her and raised her eyebrows in a silent but somehow screaming, ' _Do you believe this guy?'_ look.

Elyza shook her head, hearing Madi come tromping down the stairs. "Good Morning," Elyza paused, "Or afternoon."

Madi nodded her head and beelined for the coffee pot. She mumbled something unintelligent and poured herself a cup. Raven handed over the container of creamer without even a word.

After Madi was halfway through her cup she finally spoke, "What are we doing today?"

"Resting." Raven grouched, shooting Elyza a dirty look, "It's not good to 'overexert yourself'." She did finger quotes.

"Quit bitching Rae and deal with it." Elyza glared.

"Excuse you, this is me dealing."

"Well deal with less bitching." Elyza poured her own cup of coffee. "We are just chilling around here today, Madi. We've got food, water, clothes." She paused and glanced over at Quint, "And apparently we aren't in urgent need of medical supplies."

"Do whatever you want to today, just _don't leave_ ," Raven glared at Quint at that last.

"Can I explore the backyard?" Madi asked.

"Sure, just don't leave it." Raven agreed.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, you should stay with me," Quint protested.

"Oh and wander the neighborhood?" Elyza snarked, "She's fine, I'll keep an eye out for her."

Quint grunted, "I guess I'll be out there too."

Elyza rolled her eyes, "Let me grab a jacket and we can check it out." She patted Madi's shoulder and went upstairs. "When I come back, you'd better be doing your exercises Raven!"

"Yes mom!"

Elyza sat curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea in her hand. She had found a few bags tucked into the cupboard and it was a bit too late in the evening for coffee. It had been a pretty good day, especially for after the world had gone to hell. She and Madi had explored the back yard and found a small veggie patch. Most of the vegetables looked like they'd been picked or eaten by rabbits, but a garden would be nice. They had also found an avocado tree and an orange tree. Dinner had been fresh fruit and it had tasted amazing.

Elyza took a sip of her tea and looked over to Madi who was curled up and trying to read a book by candlelight. Madi is good people, she is helpful, funny and pleasant to be around. Quint is a pain in the ass. He had spent the day giving orders while he sat on his ass. He had also made more than a few comments about Raven's leg and how 'capable' she is. Elyza had needed to redirect Raven when she heard one of them or the man would have been shown just how capable Raven was of kicking his ass.

"So we have a problem." Raven muttered, sitting beside Elyza and glancing over at Quint who is sorting out his meds by his own confused method. He'd stopped through the whole afternoon to watch Elyza and Madi chat in the backyard, and thus made almost no progress until they came in for dinner.

"Yeah?" Elyza asked quietly.

"Quint." Was all Raven said.

Elyza nodded looking up at the other two people in the room. "We can't do anything about him without it affecting Madi."

Raven nodded her head, "He's an asshole though and I don't like him." Raven sat quietly for a few minutes thinking. "We should keep an eye on him, I don't want to kick Madi out, but I wouldn't mind getting rid of him."

"Okay, he snuck out once and he's a little foggy on the teamwork, but that doesn't mean we toss him out the door Rae." Elyza scolded, trying not to let her personal feelings about his attitude get in the way. "I know you don't like him, but not liking people isn't grounds for getting rid of them."

Raven grunted, "Fine, but if he keeps up with his commentary I'm going to kick his ass."

"Fair enough." Elyza raised her hands, "Just," She couldn't shake that weird feeling around him, "Keep an eye on him yeah?"

They both nodded their agreement, "I'm going to go to bed," Elyza stood up and took her empty cup to the kitchen sink.

"I'm staying up for a bit more," Raven said

"Don't stay up too late," Elyza asked, "You snore like a fucking lumberjack when you stay up too late."

"I won't." Raven rolled her eyes and settled into the couch with her book, she planned to keep an eye on Quint.

Notes: Guys, I am pleased to inform you that crap is about to get real, and we are only a few chapters away from getting the band back together.


	15. 15 If I wanted your opinion

p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The next day passed relatively quietly, and by that, we mean that Quint was a generic dick that only seemed to get bolder as he settled into the group, but Madi also grew bolder, smiling more and talking louder. It was pretty much a wash of two steps forward and two steps /However, on the third day with Madi and Quint, things get interesting. "Okay, so the tank on the semi is half full." Raven informed Elyza, "Judging by my limited knowledge of gas efficiency, we are going to want to find diesel, at least enough to fill the tank, preferably enough to refill it once. It gives us a decent operating range without having to sacrifice the food storage."br /"I don't see why we should be worried about this," Quint shrugged, "The house is pretty secure, I think we should hunker down for a few days, give you time to let your hip recover."br /Raven looked at him with a degree of rage that had Elyza opening her mouth. Raven raised her hand at Elyza, her glare fixed on Quint, "Okay, first of all, you are never going to talk about my hip, leg or any other part of me as a reason to do or not do something. Second of all, if I wanted your goddamn opinion I would have given it to you."br /"I was just trying to think about making you more comfortable." He snapped, "I don't understand why you are so offended by the idea that someone might try to take care of you."br /"Okay," Elyza put her hands up, "Before this escalates anymore, let's just take a step back. We probably should just hunker down, but part of that means that we need to have everything we could need for a few weeks. That means that diesel is the last thing we need to stockpile before we can really sit back for a bit okay? I'll keep an eye on Raven and make sure she doesn't overdo it, how is that?"br /Raven rolled her eyes which is practically a yes, and Quint nodded his agreement while giving Elyza a look that made her uncomfortable. It wasn't like some creepy lear or anything, it just looked like he was considering her for /"There are some gas cans out in the backyard with the lawn mower," Madi said, clearly on Elyza's side when it came to keeping the /"If it's lawnmower gas we can empty the cans into the car or the truck, get them filled up too." Raven nodded her head, "If it's for other lawn equipment we can't use, check to see if it's labeled. If it isn't we probably don't want to take the risk. The gas and oil combo would fuck up the engines."br /Madi headed into the backyard and grabbed two gas cans. One was unlabeled but the other had an 80/20 marked on the side. She grabbed them both and hauled them back to Raven. "This is what we've got."br /"Sweet, the 80/20'll need to be chucked. We can pour it into some kitty litter or some shit." Raven opened the top on the unlabeled can and took a quick whiff, coughing at the intense smell. "That's straight gas, pour that into the truck, we're on half a tank."br /"How many gas cans do you think we'll want?" Elyza asked, hauling a small but heavy backpack with /Raven looked at the semi and considered. "We'll use the portable cans for regular gas, we'll fill the saddle tanks with as much diesel as we can pull up. It'll mean driving the semi out once we find diesel but once it's gone, it's gone. Better to fill up both saddle tanks, which are fairly empty at the moment."br /"Okay, so now the big question, where the hell are we going to find diesel?"br /Quint sat up, "What about the fire station? They have their own gas stations just for the engines right?"br /"We can check there, or we can head to a truck stop, somebody has to be mostly full." Raven refused to look at /"Yeah, but won't there be a ton of people siphoning off truck stops and gas stations?" Elyza asked, hating the idea that Quint might have had a good thought, but those private stations would almost definitely be /"The school has a fueling station for buses too." Madi piped up, "Do those run on diesel?"br /"Shit," Raven looked up, "You think the commando stuck around the school? I don't want to horn in on her house, but the kid's right."br /Elyza shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe but I didn't see any fuel pumps."br /"My school has it away from the school buildings, like out behind the football fields," Madi /Raven pointed to Madi, "We never checked back there. We just stuck to the front side."br /Elyza was nodding her head, "Commando seemed pretty chill, and it's not like she's going to be using the whole damn school just for her." She shrugged, "It'd be worth it to see if there's fuel."br /"I don't want to drive the truck over until we're sure we know that there's diesel there," Raven considered, "Let's go siphon regular gas for the vehicles and then we can check out the school. Nice idea squirt." Raven nudged Madi's /"Yeah," Elyza smiled, mussing Madi's hair, "I never would have thought about the school."br /"Thanks." She /"If someone's there, I think we should avoid it." Quinn had been shaking his head while the girls talked. "Especially a commando, they could hurt you."br /"First off, the black commando totally saved our asses." Raven corrected br /Elyza threw in her two cents, "Second of all, don't you mean they could hurt us?"br /"Thirdly, won't the school be quieter than a truck stop?" Madi added in, grinning a little to be ganging up on Quint with the other two /He glowered at them all, his thick arms folded over his chest, "I don't like it."br /"Poor baby," Raven pouted, "You don't have to like it, you just have to deal with it."br /Elyza put her hand on Raven's shoulder, "Let's just go get the regular gas today and if there's time we can drive by the school." Elyza looked over at Quint, "If it looks occupied or has a lot of dead around it we'll move on to plan B."br /Quint grunted, obviously still unhappy. "Fine. I'm just trying to protect you." He looked directly at Elyza which had her shifting /Raven inserted herself between Elyza and Quint, "Let's get in the car and go. We got shit to get done."br /"Agreed." Elyza shook off the weird feeling and tossed the keys to /"I call shotgun!" Madi /Elyza's shoulders slumped and she started grumbling under her breath, "I call shotgun on the way back."br /Quint rolled his eyes at their childishness and climbed into the bed of the truck, "Come on Elyza." He held his hand out to /Elyza clambered onto the truck bed without taking Quint's hand, shoving her pack further up in the bed. "Everyone has a weapon, right?"br /Once Raven had seen a nod from Quint and Madi she threw the truck into gear and backed around until she could pull out of the narrow space in the driveway. She drove down the road looking for an auto supply /15 minutes down the road she pulled into the parking lot, it looked pretty normal which hopefully meant it'd be stocked and lacking dead /Elyza jumped out of the bed as soon as she could. Raven liked to take her turns a little sharply, and Quint didn't seem to be very good at keeping himself in his own corner of the truck /"Fuel transfer kits and all the gas cans you can find." Raven called over her shoulder, "I'm going to grab a few basic tools."br /"Okay, Madi, you're with me." Elyza waved the girl along towards the back corner of the store, at least having the consideration to shoot Raven an apologetic /Rae rolled her eyes, "Okay meathead, we need a spare tire for the truck and a decent jack, one that won't take a week to get moving. I'm sure you realize that money is not an object." She /"Obviously." Quint huffed, "It's not as if we are going to leave behind money for the things we are taking. That would be ridiculous."br /Raven blinked and tried to decide if he could be any more /A few minutes and they had a small pile of items loaded into the truck bed, Elyza had arranged a bunch of things so there was a dividing line between her and Quint. The mall down the street still had a bunch of cars parked in the lot. A quick lesson and they were filling gas canisters with siphoned gas. Elyza pulled a sharpie out of her pack and began marking an X on each of the cars they had /"It'll save time later." She shrugged when Madi gave her a funny /"You shouldn't do it though, someone will see the marks and know we were here." Quint /"Why does it matter if they know someone was here at some point?" Elyza /"It doesn't matter." Raven shook her head. "And saving time in the future will totally be worth any so-called 'risk'.br /"I don't see how making ourselves known to any potential others in the area will be helpful." Quint argued, "They'll start to build a map of where we are based on the places we're comfortable going."br /"Because we marked a mall?" Elyza asked in /"We aren't leaving marks behind everywhere and everyone is raiding any usable supplies while they can." Madi inserted. "If we need to leave quickly, knowing where the gas will be more important." She /He shook his head and started helping. "This is going to stab us in the back later."br /Raven turned to snark at Quint some more and stopped, hand going to the knife hooked to her belt, "Who are you?" she /The girl in front with the long curly hair raised her hands, "I'm Octavia," She jerked her chin at the curly haired… Boy is the wrong word, but he definitely is too cute to be a man. We'll go with model. The curly haired model beside her. "That's my brother Bellamy, and that," She jerked her thumb at a bald Tarzan in work boots, "Is Lincoln. We heard you talking."br /Quint glared at the others, he'd complained about the noise the girls constantly made but they refused to stop talking. "Well just keep on walking."br /"Quint," Madi scolded, "Hi, I'm Madi, it's nice to meet you."br /"Nice to meet you too." Octavia /Bellamy elbowed her, "Hey, I'm with him, we should just keep walking."br /"We need help, Bell." Octavia turned when she spoke to her /"Help with what?" Elyza asked, "We might be able to get you what you need."br /"We are trying to get out of the city, we heard some rumors…" Octavias voice trailed off, "We are trying to find food and fuel."br /"Rumors?" Raven raised her eyebrow and leaned against one of the cars, "What kind of rumors?"br /"Who cares about rumors, we aren't going to spare anything," Quint growled. br /"Excuse me, bitch!" Raven glared at him, "Did I ask for your opinion? I believe I told you what happens when I want it. I also believe I heard rumors about throwing you down a well sometime this week, so maybe you want to shut the fuck up, and let the nice people talk." She stared at Quint until he looked away. Raven sighed and turned back to Octavia, "You were saying?"br /Elyza mouthed an apology at the trio of strangers, and glared at Quint, "Raven's right, you need to shut the hell /Octavia looked a little concerned by their infighting, but also a lot amused. Her companions were just concerned. Octavia finally felt comfortable enough to put her hands down, "We heard they were planning to burn out the infected trapped downtown, figured that you guys might have heard the same thing, and we're looking to get out."br /Madi frowned, "They?"br /"Government conspiracies always start with a nice 'they'." Raven assured the girl, "Probably the military in this case."br /Elyza was nodding her head in agreement, "Military is definitely running this."br /Lincoln smiled, "Probably, either way, things are looking like it's a bad idea to stick around even if they don't burn things out. We were camping out in the fire station down by Korea town and got overrun by the mobs of infected roving around."br /"You know, Tarzan has a point." Raven shook her finger at him, then she came to a realization, "Damnit! I just dug that moat!"br /"You dug a moat?" Bellamy asked, /"She totally dug a moat," Elyza rolled her eyes, "Not that I can figure out what the fuck the moat is supposed to do, it's not exactly hard to cross it."br /"It's really cool though," Madi defended /"She spent all day digging that damn moat and left me to board up the house by myself." Elyza griped, "Do you know how fucking hard it is to screw huge boards in, while holding them, by your damn self?"br /"I mean I wouldn't," Raven grinned, "But I'm sure Tarzan knows a few things about nailing things against the wall."br /Lincoln coughed and looked down. Octavia, on the other hand, blushed, "Anyway, you think you could give us a hand getting out of town? You look like you've got a pretty good thing going on here."br /"Yeah, we can spare a few things." Elyza agreed after a short, silent conversation with /Raven held out a hand towards them and raised her eyebrows at Elyza. It is a gesture she'd seen more than once right before Raven invited her to do something stupid and crazy that usually ended up being fun… Or that one time. That ended up being a visit to the police /Elyza cocked her eyebrow, considering. She turned to look at Madi, "What do you think Madi? They good people?"br /Madi narrowed her eyes at the three standing in front of them, twisting her lips to the side as she considered them as both individuals and as a group. "Yes." She bobbed her /Lincoln, Bellamy, and Octavia felt an odd sense of relief as if this child nodding was somehow deciding all of /Elyza grinned, "You're coming with us then. We've got food, water, medicine, clothes, vehicles, the whole nine yards."br /"I think we could probably throw in a kitchen sink if you wanted." Raven /"Are you serious?" Quint turned around to face the girls, "Why are you telling them this? We could have just gone on our merry way, this is crazy. We can't just trust every stranger we meet."br /Raven shrugged, "On one hand, your right, we trusted you and look how that's turning out. On the other hand there's strength in numbers." She turned to glare at Quint, "Plus it's because of us that we have all that shit anyway, so fuck off."br /Octavia and Bellamy had been having a quiet argument, while Lincoln stood and silently observed. After giving her brother a small shove, Octavia agreed "We'll come with you, no promises on how long, but we could use a little safety." br /"Great, then I guess the first order of business is to find a place to hide out from the shitstorm rumored to head our way." Elyza pursed her lips, "And we definitely need to find a new place because three bedrooms are not nearly enough to hold seven people."br /"I'm working on it." Raven mumbled, "You guys have wheels?"br /Bellamy reached up and grabbed his neck, "I kind of ran our jeep off the road."br /"Smooth." Elyza /"No worries, we can all load up in the truck and head back to the Semi." Raven grabbed a full gas can, "Grab a can and help us get loaded. That all the shit you have?" She gestured to the bags the trio was /"Yeah, the firehouse was pretty empty when we left it." Lincoln walked over to grab some cans. Octavia had also moved over, but she almost sprawled on the ground, tripping on thin air. Quint reached out and grabbed her waist, hauling her back up before she actually landed. br /"Thanks, I'm such a klutz." Octavia gave him a small /Quint nodded, doing his best to return it. "I was a bit of a jerk earlier, maybe since we are going to be grouping up we can start again?" He left his hands around her waist until she was stable, "I'm Quint."br /"Nice to meet you, Quint," Octavia moved away, "I'll try not to make you catch me again, but no promises."br /He chuckled, "I don't mind." He held out his hand to help her into the bed of the truck and was pleasantly surprised when she accepted /They drove back to their little house, it was starting to get late and everyone was hungry. "What do you guys want for dinner?" Elyza asked, "We've got pasta, cereal but no milk, all the canned soups you could ever need and more."br /Raven gasped, "Can you make pancakes? We still have that mix from my apartment."br /Elyza grinned, "Yeah and like 20 more boxes we got when we raided Walmart." She looked around at the others, "Everyone good with pancakes?"br /Vigorous nodding followed, "Raven I need you to power the griddle."br /Raven was already halfway to the kitchen to get the generator running and the griddle started. "Way ahead of you Barbie!"br /"I'm going to spit in your pancakes if you don't watch it, bitch." Elyza shoulder checked Raven before reaching into the cupboard for the mix. br /"I can show you where the bathroom and bedrooms are if you want." Quint offered Octavia. br /"Madi can crash with us, then the rest of you can figure out sleeping arrangements in the other two bedrooms," Raven called over her /"Fair enough," Bellamy /Elyza couldn't suppress her giggles, "Oh my god, I didn't realize it before, but you sound like Batman."br /"He does not," Raven disagreed, "He sounds like our history teacher, Mr. Kane."br /"You know he kind of does." Elyza grinned, "Mr. Kane was hot in a Jesus-wannabe kind of way."br /Bellamy looked between the two girls who were now bickering about the hotness of various high school teachers. "I'm just going to go check out the upstairs."br /"I think I'll join you." Lincoln nodded, "Octavia, call if you need anything."br /She smiled, "Sure thing Linc."br /After a short time, Elyza had a large stack of pancakes ready and she called out for the others in the house to come eat. There were exclamations of joy and excitement at the bottle of maple syrup, cans of fruit and the plate of /"Where the fuck did you get bacon?!" Raven practically yelled in her excitement as she shoved a piece in her /"All that pre-cooked bacon is shelf stable." Elyza pointed to a bag, "We've got like 20lbs, I figured we could go crazy tonight."br /"You can go crazy anytime you want as long as I get fucking bacon." Raven did a little happy wiggle, her leg extended out from the /Octavia snorted, "Are you two always this… Energetic?"br /Madi laughed, "They're tired and chill tonight."br /"Oh god," Octavia shook her head, "I can't imagine what you would be like on caffeine."br /"Eh," Elyza shrugged, "Caffeine puts me to sleep." Raven was nodding her /"As for me, you won't have to imagine." Raven grinned from ear to ear, "We'll probably run out in a few weeks, but until then, it's coffee every morning."br /Bellamy's eyes got big, "You have coffee?"br /"We have hella coffee man-boy." Raven smirked, "I even have it rigged to start on a timer."br /"But the timer doesn't go off until, like, noon." Madi piped /"Yeah, we don't exactly hurry to get up in the morning." Elyza /Octavia flapped her hand, "No worries here. I'd rather sleep in most days."br /After everyone had eaten their fill they slowly separated, finding their way to beds or books to occupy their time until they were ready to sleep./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The usual morning grumbles were voiced as they congregated around the coffee pot the next morning. It took almost 15 minutes before conversation started to flow, as people finally woke up. Bellamy, Lincoln, and Octavia were the last to join in the chatter as they savored their first cups of coffee in coming up on two /So what's this plan of yours Raven, I know your plotting face." Elyza swung her mug in Raven's /"The school." Raven swirled the coffee, watching it move, "I think it's the best option we have, commando or not."br /"Will it be safe if they burn out the infected?" Elyza askedbr /"Depending on the location, yeah. A school should be pretty safe, concrete and rebar don't burn well." Lincoln said in between /Raven raised her eyebrows, "Tarzan has layers." She grinned, "School sounds even better now. I'm thinking we take the vehicles around, park them by the back and unload them. As soon as we have the semi unloaded, we dump it. School is already risky enough, we don't want people looking twice."br /"We shouldn't dump the semi, we'll need it to move somewhere else." Quint /"There's no house big enough for all of us." Raven shook her head, refusing to look at Quint, "The school will give us space to live, protect ourselves and we could maybe turn it into something better."br /"We certainly wouldn't be worried about space." Elyza scoffed, "But you're right that we should keep attention away from the school, no moats or barricades, just a nice empty school."br /"It won't matter when we move on." Quint /"I don't want to always keep moving." Madi looked /"Then we won't sweetheart." Elyza hooked her arm around the girl's shoulders and hugged /"It might be easier to survive if we keep moving," Bellamy /"Life is about more than just surviving." Elyza snapped, "So feel free to keep moving, I want to make something."br /"Amen." Raven gave her a /"Let's get everything loaded up in the vehicles. Take everything useful, including mattresses. We should go through the rest of the neighborhood and take all of those supplies as well." Raven shared her /"What I wouldn't give for a moving van." Octavia muttered, "I know the semi kinda counts, but you said it was full?"br /"We can fit a few mattresses in there." Raven shrugged, "We'll tie the rest down in the bed of the truck, not like a cop's going to pull us over. We'll pack in the corners of the cab and the car with everything else we have or can find and we'll be good to go."br /"Sounds like you've been planning this for a while." Bellamy commented, "You been thinking about the apocalypse a long time?"br /Raven grinned, "I like to make things go boom, can't help but think about how to survive a big one."br /"I wish she was kidding," Elyza /Raven rolled her eyes, "Don't be so dramatic about it."br /"You blew up the lab and destroyed my hair," Elyza /"It grew back," Raven defended /"It was a week before homecoming!" Elyza cried, "I ended up with a bob!"br /"And yet somehow the real tragedy was the Finn you ended up with."br /"Sadly, we can't avoid all the tragedies in life." Elyza /Raven laughed, "A month ago you were still mourning that tragedy! Who knew that all you needed was a little apocalypse to get over shovel face and his glorious curls."br /"Oh my god," Elyza snorted, "Did you seriously just call him that? I was under the impression that you were crushing on him long before I was."br /Raven shrugged, "A turd in the hand is worth two in the bush, and I'm pretty sure everyone here would agree that I won out." Bellamy and Octavia just looked at each other, momentarily lost in that metaphor, trying to figure out which would be worse. Being the bush or the hand. "Seriously?" Raven /"I think you lost them." Lincoln patted her shoulder. "Let's get these loaded up." He gestured to the pile of mattresses at the base of the stairs and Raven /"Did anyone else see him move those?" Everyone's hand went up except Ravens and she nodded to herself, "Note to self, Tarzan is a selective ninja."br /"I'm going to go check out the other houses, I want the best mattress I can find." Bellamy rocked forward onto the balls of his feet. "Anyone want to go with me? We need, what?" He paused and counted, "4 more mattresses?"br /Madi and Octavia both volunteered immediately, Quint also agreed after the girls confirmed they were going. "Cool, We'll haul them out onto the yard and grab anything else useful while we're there."br /Lincoln and Elyza were trying to Tetris the mattresses into the semi while Raven observed and gave them unhelpful directions. She gave Bellamy a thumbs up to acknowledge his plans, "We'll empty the house and drive over, it'll take 30 minutes tops, unless these two bozos can't figure out how directions," she began yelling again, "I said to the LEFT!"br /"YOUR LEFT, or OURS?" Elyza snapped, her face red with the /"We're all facing the same damn direction!" Raven yelled /"There's no space there!"br /Lincoln gave a grunt and hefted the mattress up onto his shoulder, "We'll stack them on top of the pallets."br /"Why couldn't we have just done that in the first place," Elyza /"I don't know, you're the one holding the mattress." Raven /Lincoln shook his head at both of them and heaved the mattress to the very back of the semi, "We can put any extra things in between the pallets."br /"Since you can He-Man the mattresses to the back, I'm going to go in and get all the useful stuff pulled together." Elyza walked away from the truck and towards the /"I'm just gonna," Raven pointed to Lincoln's bulging muscles as he lifted up another mattress on his shoulders, "Uh, supervise."/p  
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	16. 16 Dramatic and appropriate and shit

"This house looks like it'll have decent mattresses." Bellamy walked up a driveway.

"How can you tell?" Madi asked, looking sideways at him.

"It's a fancy house, if they spent a ton of money on a house then they'll spend a ton on something they sleep on every night, right?" Bellamy explained his logic.

"I guess that makes sense." Madi filed that tidbit of information away, "So how do we get in?"

Quint walked up to the window overlooking the front porch, he grabbed one of the metal decorations, some rusted out farm tool thing, and swung it into the window. It took a second swing to get the rest of the glass out, but once he did he turned and offered a little bow, "An entrance."

Madi giggled, "Thank you." She reached in and opened the door, walking into the spacious kitchen curiously. "Who do you think lives here?"

"Someone with no taste," Octavia made a face as she followed Madi in. The walls were a mix of split pea soup green and Pepto Bismol pink. The orange and gold furniture and accents didn't help.

Upstairs they could hear footsteps, slow and plodding. Madi's smile went away, "What is that?"

"Just stay down here, Madi," Quint was already heading up the stairs, "I'll take care of you girls."

"Not that I need it, but thanks, I guess," Octavia muttered. Bellamy was glaring at Quint's retreating figure.

"That guy has a hell of an ego." Bellamy muttered, "I can take care of you just as well as he can."

"And I can kick your ass while blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back." Octavia glared at her brother, "I don't need anyone to take care of me."

"I know," Bellamy raised his hands, "But if anyone's going to act like it's their job to take care of you, it's gonna be me."

A few loud grunts followed a thump upstairs and the group tensed. A door opened and shut, "All clear, just stay out of the closed room, there's nothing in there anyway." Quint called down.

"Don't go too hard on him, he's just trying to look out for us." Madi defended him quietly, "Even if he is a butt about it sometimes."

"Whatever, let's go look around." Octavia walked away.

They did have fairly good mattresses, something that Bellamy was pleased to remind everyone. They also grabbed a few blankets and some more canned food from the pantry. The boys hauled everything out to the front yard before continuing on to the next house.

The next few houses didn't have much that was usable. More canned food, a few first aid supplies, and two more dead people. They started on the other side of the street working their way back to the house they had been staying in.

By the time they hit the last house they had a few more mattresses out in yards than they actually needed and another couple of weeks worth of food piled up. They had also managed to find a few more medical supplies and medicine. They weren't sure if any of it would be useful, but they tossed it into bags to go with them anyway.

"Shit, what is that smell?" Octavia asked, gagging behind her hand.

They turned around to see a slow-moving group of dead, stumbling towards them, gathered by the sound of people moving and yelling and the smell of living things. Quint snagged Octavia's arm and pulled her behind him, "Go join the girls in the house, I'll take care of this."

"Over my dead body." Octavia snapped, yanking her arm out of his hold, "I fix my own problems. I don't need you or anyone trying to fix things for me." She hefted her baseball bat and stalked towards the group, shoulders fixed in anger.

"Here we go again," Bellamy muttered, following his little sister to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. "Nice going idiot." He shouldered past Quint who had yet to pick his jaw up off the floor.

"Hey get back here!" Quint called, breaking into a run so that he could stand by Octavia's side while she took on the horde.

"Get," She swung her bat with a grunt, just barely missing Quint's head as she knocked one of the infected to the ground. "Away," She kicked another to the ground, "From me." She glared at Quint while she smashed her bat through an infected's face. She straightened up, her hair blowing fiercely in the wind, eyes lit up with fiery retribution, and bat raised to beat any remaining necessary sense into Quint. In standing she leaned back too far, tripped over her own feet, and promptly introduced her ass to the grass.

Quint surged forward and reached down to haul her up, as Lincoln, Raven, and Elyza joined them in the fight, while Madi had backed herself up next to the semi keeping out of the way. Quint held onto Octavia to make sure she had her balance, "Are you okay?" He felt a splatter of wet across his head and back, heavy and thick.

"Look out lover boy!" Raven shoved him out of the way of the collapsing corpse while Lincoln yanked a fireman's ax out of the thing's spine.

Quint stumbled forward and Octavia almost fell down. Instead, her training kicked in. She twisted out of the way, yanking her wrist from his grasp and planted a kick to his lower back, firmly landing him facedown in the yard. She hesitated, giving him a quick once-over before she turned and rejoined the fight, using her bat to bash skulls in.

A few intense minutes later and all the corpses were on the ground where they belonged. "I feel gross," Elyza grumbled, shaking a few chunks of torn flesh off her wrist.

"There's a fairly clean pool in the backyard of that house," Bellamy pointed to show them which one.

"Not for long," Raven replied, stripping her blood-soaked shirt off and dropping it on the pavement with a wet smack. She would much rather be exposed in front of strangers than have that… Moisture on her body any longer.

"Please, let's go get clean," Elyza practically begged. "I'll get the shampoo."

Elyza ran to the car to grab the soap and shampoo while Bellamy led the bloodstained entourage to the pool. Unlike Raven, everyone else waited until they were at the pool's edge before they stripped down to their skivvies and jumped into the water.

After Octavia climbed out of the pool to dry off, Quint put a hand on her shoulder, "Can we talk?" She nodded and Lincoln watched the two go around the corner of the house.

"Look, I'm sorry I kicked you, I was pissed and I let that affect my judgment. It won't happen again." Octavia looked uncomfortable and avoided looking directly at him.

He nodded slowly, "Thank you, and I forgive you."

Octavia blinked slowly and stared straight ahead. "I only wanted to discuss your behavior before the fight." Quint began, taking Octavia's hand, "I can't have you undermining my authority in front of the others, and I can't have you endangering yourself. I understand that you are strong and capable, but that doesn't mean that you need to constantly be under threat of harm. Do you understand? So when I tell you to go with the girls, I mean it."

Quint straightened up to his full height and nodded, satisfied that he had gotten through to her. Clearly, Octavia was a much better choice, she listens and doesn't interrupt him when he's explaining things to her. She's also far more attractive than the other two with her demure attitude and kindness to both him and Madi. Accepting Octavia into their group is the only decent choice Raven and Elyza have made in the time he's been with them.

Octavia had stilled, willing herself to calm the fuck down. Sahyun would be ashamed of her if she lost her temper. It had certainly taken long enough to make control a habit, this little prick wasn't going to be why she lost it. She tugged her hand back, willing to just walk away in her rage. Not only did he not release her hand, he tugged back on it, pulling her closer into his body.

Fuck.

That.

Shit.

She hooked her hand behind his head and jerking him past her, sliding her right leg between his and kicked him in the back of the knee. She finished with an elbow to the back of his skull and walked away.

Ears ringing with rage everything sounded distant and hollow. Slowly she registered Bellamy speaking to her, "What the fuck happened?" He kept asking, but his hands were carefully out to his sides, not touching and not reaching out to her.

Elyza ran past the pair to look around the corner and saw Quint on the ground with his eyes closed and his left calf bent two inches below his knee joint.

"He wouldn't let me go," Octavia said, her voice very calm and even. "I made him."

"We can see that." Raven hovered her hands a few inches away from Octavia's arms, it was like a hug, but without all that touching shit. "And he definitely deserves it, but you don't look so hot Xena, you sure you're good?"

Octavia nodded her head, "I just need some space." She walked over to one of the lounge chairs situated by the pool and lay back, eyes closed and focused on her breathing.

"She'll be fine in a bit." Bellamy's eyes were trained on his sister, "She doesn't lose her temper often anymore, but it can be hard for her to control it when she does."

"I feel that Batman. Everyone has a rage monkey somewhere under the surface." Raven leaned around the corner to peek at Quint, "Hers just breaks bones." She saw the confused and vaguely annoyed look on Bellamy's face and continued, "Mine commits minor acts of terrorism so it's fine, no judgment here dude."

"I eat chocolate until I throw up," Madi admitted from her spot beside Bellamy.

"And I binge-watch the Disney channel until about the fifth rerun of the house of mouse." Elyza pursed her lips, "I'm going to need a new coping mechanism." She gestured to where Quint lay beside her, "His leg's broken, obviously, and he's probably going to have a concussion. He'll need more help than I can give."

"He's going to need a lot more if he ever lays a hand on Octavia again," Bellamy replied, hands clenched into a fist. He gave Elyza his full attention now that Lincoln was sitting next to Octavia. Bellamy didn't exactly approve of his sister having a love life, but Lincoln is a good guy and is at least intelligent enough to know that Octavia would break him if he tried talking to her or touching her at this particular moment. Either way, Bellamy felt safe turning away from the couple to the task at hand. "I know he's been here longer than us, and I don't have a right to say jack shit about it, but we are not sticking around if he stays with you."

"Oh no, he's fucking gone." Raven asserted, making it clear she wasn't going to budge. She did look at Madi though, wanting to know what her take would be.

"Madi, he can't stay. He isn't willing to work with us or listen to anyone else." Elyza spoke quietly, "You can go with him, or you can stay. I'd really like it if you stayed."

Madi hugged herself, "Can I come with you then?"

Raven stood up and hugged the younger girl, "Duh!" She grinned over at Elyza, "Now I have the irritating sister and the pretty one."

"Which one am I?" Madi looked up, thoroughly expecting to be the irritating little sister that no one wants.

"She's trying to piss me off, Madi." Elyza mock glared at Raven, "She's trying to tell me that I'm irritating. She just forgets that she's the irritating one."

Raven rolled her eyes, "Elyza is delusional, but she's also right. You are totally the pretty one. Welcome to the Reyes family tree." In a conspiratorial tone, she added, "We have a lot more grafts than the original tree at this point so you'll fit right in."

"I'd offer to adopt you into the Lex family, but the Reyes family is much cooler. We just study a lot." Elyza twisted her lips thinking, "And get tattoos."

Madi's eyes went wide, "You have a tattoo?"

Elyza cocked her eyebrow, slightly offended at Madi's tone. "Yes. I have tattoos."

"Wow.." Madi was in awe, then the light in her eyes dimmed, "I guess I won't ever be able to do that huh?"

"If you don't mind that I never completed my apprenticeship, it could be arranged." Elyza grinned. "We'd have to find the supplies of course. I'm not giving you some janky prison tatt no matter how badly you want one."

Madi looked like she'd just died and gone to some very odd twelve-year-old version of heaven. Maybe purgatory? But the vaguely nice kind. "You can do tattoos? Like, you're a tattooer?"

Raven rolled her eyes, "You are not tattooing a twelve-year-old Lyza."

"Well no, that would be irresponsible." Elyza rolled her eyes, "But if Madi wants a tattoo when she's older, and we find some equipment, then why not?"

"How is it that this is the one time I'm the responsible one?"

"Because needles give you heebie-jeebies and I can't convince you to get one even if Wynona was on the line." Elyza mocked.

"That's because when having to choose between permanent scarring and losing my baby, I'll knock you out and drive away." Raven sniffed, "Needles have nothing to do with it. So what are we going to do with sleeping beauty?"

"Leave him to die," Bellamy muttered.

"Okay, we get it." Elyza raised her eyebrows at him, "Don't mess with the baby sis. I understand you're upset, but we don't murder people. Got it? The only people-shaped things we kill are the ones that are already dead."

"We aren't taking him with us." Bellamy insisted.

"Can't we just leave him with a few things?" Madi asked, "Some food and water, maybe some medical stuff for his leg?"

"Sounds good to me." Raven squeezed Madi into a side-hug. "Let's go pack that up while the rest of the adults finish dressing themselves."

Madi nodded her agreement, and together they put together a modest pack of supplies that should keep Quint going for a week, more if he rationed. A good idea since they'd just finished ransacking the neighborhood.

Quint was still out cold when they laid the pack next to his head and climbed into their vehicles. Elyza didn't feel great just sitting in the passenger seat of the semi while Raven pulled away from the small patch of suburbia. "Hey," A hand rested on her leg and she looked at her best friend, "We did it for Madi. You and I both know she would have been the next one on his list."

Elyza shuddered just thinking about the way he pursued and checked each of them off. "Yeah, I know." The idea that he would ever do that to the little girl sleeping in the cab made her want to turn around and run him over a few times, just to be sure he couldn't.

It wasn't the nicest of thoughts she'd ever had, but despite it being the end of the world and all, somehow it wasn't the meanest thing she'd ever thought either. Oh well, there's always room for improvement.

They drove for what felt like an hour, but it couldn't possibly have been that long, the fuel gauge on the semi would have had to drop much further for that. Raven hopped out of the truck, waiting for the other two vehicles to come to a stop in the same parking lot.

As soon as everyone was out of their vehicles, and giving her the attention she so desperately desired, Raven, spread her arms, "Welcome to Temecula High, our new home."

"Uh, don't we have to see if it's occupied first?" Octavia asked.

"Damn it! I was having a moment! It was all dramatic and appropriate and shit." Raven snapped.

"If you say so, honey." Elyza patted her shoulder, and all save the pouting engineer got to work.

Notes:

This was fun and now stupid Quint is gone! Also, Bookwyrm and I totally stood in my living room and slow-moed through Octavia's fight moves, we wanted realism for you and I hope you appreciate the sacrifice I had to make to lose that mock fight.


	17. Chapter 17

Due to how much of a pain in the ass it is to post here, we won't be finishing this story here. HOWEVER it's been done on AO3 for like 2 months. If you want, come on over and join the ride.( /works/16349225)


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